Holland, MI: Finally canceling cable. OTA time, tvfool link included

I did a bit of research on your situation. You appear to be near Holland, MI. As you can see on your chart, you have major TV transmitters spread out from the north to the southeast. You need to let us know what stations you most want to receive. I would want everything on the list down to the ION affiliate which would require a rotor if only one antenna was used.
The good news is that you do not need that PBS station on real channel 5 as it is an exact duplicate of the one on channel 11. Antennas for channels 2 through 6 require a larger "old fashioned" antenna. You would do well with a combination VHF-high (channels 7-13) and UHF (channels 14-51) antenna. It is going to need to be outdoors at least 20 feet in height. I know your weather conditions can be harsh, so beware of cheap Chinese brands. I would explore the Winegard and Antennas Direct websites for information.
Also let us know how many TVs you want to connect to the antenna. I personally do not like amplifiers but sometimes they are necessary.
This is just a bit of information to get you started thinking in the proper direction, hopefully other members will add to this thread.

Please put a location in the title of ALL antenna help threads. See the sticky.

The Clearstream is a good antenna, but you could also look at the Antennacraft lineup at Radio Shack, like the HBU-33.http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3740646

The nice thing about it is that you can try it out and if the results are not good, you can return it easily.

You definately need to put the antenna outdoors.If you are only concerned about getting the stations from the SE, then you do not need a rotor. For the PBS station Ch 11 at 44 deg, you should be able to still get it even if your antenna is pointing SE, or close to it, because the PBS station is line of sight and only 17 miles away.

Hook up to 1 tv first and see what you get. As you start adding more tv's with splitters, and if you notice channels starting to drop out, then you will need an amp.

Wrong antenna. Select the C2V instead if you're looking at that product line. You can get the C2V at most Best Buy stores now.

I would not want to try an antenna in your location with just one set of VHF dipoles such as the C2V. Both NBC on channel 7 and CBS on 8 are 1 edge reception. The HBU-33 is more in line with what I would try. As I mentioned above, I know you have severe weather concerns, and generally the Winegard (made in America) brand has a reputation of high quality and endurance. I have certainly found such to be true in harsh West Texas. This antenna, while not available at a local retail store, can be ordered within your homesate of Michigan. http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=HD7696P&d=Winegard-HD7696P-High-Definition-VHFUHF-HD7696-Series-TV-Antenna-(HD7696P)&c=TV Antennas&sku=

Since his plot is at the default of 10', it might be worth re-running the plot at the intended height. I'd bet the "1-edge" notations turn to "LOS" in the calculations.

I'd be concerned that the HBU33 might have too narrow of a beamwidth to cover the arc needed on VHF, about 85°. I'd actually prefer to try a ClearStream 5 aimed at roughly ENE and see if it would work. It's specified to have a 70° BW on high-VHF and looks somewhat like an omni for UHF.

Unfortunately, Antennacraft doesn't publish polar plots, so it's hard to guess what it's reception might be like outside its published beamwidth. At least the ClearStream 5's tech data sheet gives a good idea of how the reception pattern looks.

Yes, the Clearstream 5 does have a nice wide beam-width and may indeed be a good choice for VHF as the OP seems to like this style. I would also get the Clearstream 2 for UHF since the 5 comes with the needed UHF/VHF combiner. I am just never comfortable with trying to use a UHF antenna for VHF or VHF antenna for UHF and hoping for the best with out-of-band performance. It may work for one channel and not another. These antennas would also have a low wind load and not capture much snow. They are a bit expensive, but when one is stopping the cable or satellite bill it is easy to justify the one time expense of a good antenna.