Antennas For Monitoring ARMER Simulcast Sites

I was up in the Saint Cloud area for most of the week. What a difference monitoring the ARMER system up there. It sounds great on the Uniden HP-1. Of course, once I am back in the Twin Cities Metro area it is the usual simulcast issues. Anyway, for those monitoring simulcast systems, have you tried to use unity gain antennas to see if this helps reception? Usually, we try to get more signal, thus we get antennas with gain, etc., but with ARMER, particularly in the Metro area with simulcast sites, is this an example of "less is more"? I don't think I even have a 1/4 wave 800 antenna, be it portable or mobile, but I am wondering if it may actually work better on ARMER. Also, have people here tried either the ATTenuator on the scanner and/or an in line variable attenuator to see if that actually improves reception on ARMER in the Twin Cities? It might be worth a try!