OT/ antenna amplifer

I built this house 25 years ago and put 1 or 2 antenna outlets in every bedroom plus living room and family room. I have always had lousey TV reception farther away from the antenna. I have 3 splitters in the attic. The rooms that feed from the first splitter have the best reception and the best digital signal. The TV off the last splitter gets the poorest. I have seen amplifers mentioned in a post on the last page. I assume you get them somewhere like Radio Shack. Are some amplifers better than others? Is one sufficiant or do some installations need more than one? Is it a no brainer on where to install the amplifer in the line. Like before the first splitter or if you need more than one, before each splitter. Any suggestions on this, Thanks.

Better get to the nearest Radio Shack and get some new stuff.

each of your splitters needs to be an "amplified" splitter. I put a "head end" amp on my antenna, then split its out put to 2 four port amplified splitters, and have the same signal level at each of the 8 outlets in my place. Been there 35 years and still works great.

Our antenna runs into the basement as so do all the antenna wires for each room. This is where I put our amplifier.

If you get an amplifier get one that has multiple outlets on it so it also acts as a splitter. our farm supply store sells them for $14.00. We can't wathch TV without one.

Get a spare because any lightning storm puts our out. They must be real sensitive.

Also run coaxle cable!

Cable from that long ago might be RG-59 which has greater losses than the newer RG-6. Possible to install new cable?

Every time you split an coax signal you lose 7 db. So if the last TV coax is split 3 times that means you lose 21 db., that is a lot. Your best bet is to buy a amplifer with multi. outlets and run RG6 cable (without splitting to each TV). If there is a jack in a room without a TV a cap or 75 ohm terminator should be on the coax so signal is not lost. I have found that Channel Master has the best amp., but that may be my personal preference, even though I do not sell amps. The best setup for fringe area is amp on antenna and amp to split coax signals to TVs. Only using RG6 cable. Hope this helps.

It is called a distribution amplifier, some or maybe all are adjustable as far as output, as mine is. You might put a spike eater or MOV in line to catch the electrical line spikes....there is also a fitting that goes in a coax line to run spikes coming from the antenna to ground....but, another impedance bunp/signal degrader. ohfred

Here is a link to the distribution amp I use. Beats the heck out of splitters.
AMP

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions I did not know that antenna signal was that touchy.

> You might put a spike eater or MOV in line to catch the electrical line spikes.

Fred, I've been looking for something like this, but can't seem to find anything. I have a powered splitter and an inline amp for my antenna. It seems to work OK, except for when we turn on the popcorn maker then weaker VHF channels go out. Do you know where I can order something that would prevent this?

I don't know about the popcorn thing...might try switching where you have the thing plugged in at. As far as the problem in the attic, I would go to one of the large tv sales places and look behind that wall full of tvs where they are feeding all those and tell the salesman that you want an amplifier similar to theirs with enough output terminals to serve your needs and put it in the attic...maybe if you get the signal high enough, it will over ride the popcorn machine. If it don't, theres always chips...smile. ohfred

I guess I would rather have the popcorn than the VHF anyway

Since the popcorn machine is on the other side of the house and on a different circuit from the tuner, amp, and splitter it has to be something to do with the whole-house electrical. I thought there would be some type of cheap filter I could put on the 120V before this RF equipment, but perhaps there is not.

Used to be a low pass filter you could get to put on your tv...if it is something coming in thru the antenna. I would think it is induced into the older style coax running in the walls where the coax is close to the 120 volt wiring, maybe not.
I once run into a situation where my lower vhf channels (six and below) were attacked by something called QRM (man made interference). I checked everything on my property and finally started swinging my antenna and it seemed to be coming from across the road at another residence. Not very friendly neighbors either...but out of desperation, I knocked on their door. The lady of the house came to the door and I asked her how her reception was on her tv. She turned it on and it was fine...but on UHF. I had her turn it down on the effected channels and it was God awful. A few weeks later she developed breast cancer, poor gal...but anyhow to get to the point. They split up and went seperate ways and one day after a storm and their trash blew over onto my property, I gathered it up and took it back over and delivered it to the can. About that time a great big thunder crash boomed and their dog came running out of the house...so I took him back and knocked, no one home...came once a week and fed the dog...oh my, what a bunch of folks. But anyhow with the house empty but for the dog I set my vhf ham radio up here in my house and took the hand held and went to their basement and started flipping breakers till I found the one causing all the QRM. I traced the wires and they went back through a four inch plastic pipe. Now for the good part...I took the side cutters and reached as far as I could and cut them off. The house sold at a sheriff's sale and the new owners are tickled just as it is. The problem....there was a remote controlled skylight controlled with an antenna and a hand held remote. You might use this for your problem and start turning off circuits and try to find out which one is the culprit and make adjustments from there. Sorry for the book...ohfred

Hehe. Thanks for the story Fred. I'm pretty sure my problem comes from the powered splitter that I have (and weak signal). RFI from the 120v is probably only distorting the signal only a little bit, but it's enough when the signal is too weak to begin with. I've decided to upgrade my antenna(s) for better VHF reception.

They tell me that the new digital signals are all UHF so instead of putting all your eggs in the VHF basket, make sure you got a good UHF antenna too. ohfred

Actually, they're not all UHF after the transition. Each VHF station was given the choice to stay in VHF or move to UHF. Almost all the stations in lo-band VHF (channels 2 through 6) left for UHF, but it seems many (if not most) of the high-band VHF stations decided to stay in VHF because of the longer range. In my area, the channels 8 and 10 (high band VHF) decided to stay in VHF for digital transmissions after the transition (although they were using UHF for digital prior to February).

Back in the analog days, these channels were often fuzzy, but always watchable. Now that they're digital, instead of being fuzzy, they tend to go out completely instead.