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TomCat4680

Last reply Dec 1, 2011 · posted in Over the Air Television By RabbitEars.Info

Pre-amp suggestion

I have a Channel Master CM-4428HD mounted 30' AGL. What pre-amp do I need to receive stations that are 50+ miles away?

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Mr Tony

Dec 1, 2011

they are contradicting themselves. IN the specs it says
Receives channels 14 thru 69
as does solid signal...The highest gain Channel Master UHF antenna! Perfect for long range Digital and Analog UHF reception.

Like I say a UHF only antenna CAN get VHF Hi but it is usually at a hindered signal versus a VHF antenna. When Minneapolis did the DTV conversion Fox & NBC went back to their analog spots (9 & 11) and my U120 antenna could only pull a 73-76 signal on the TV. I'm 29 miles from the towers. Switched to a combo and now they are at 100%

Heck my VHF only 1913 picks up UHF too at a low signal..even though its pointed 180 degrees away (that antenna is aimed for a VHF only station 72 miles away...only channel in that market)

TomCat4680

Dec 1, 2011

Iceberg said:
they are contradicting themselves. IN the specs it says
Receives channels 14 thru 69
as does solid signal...The highest gain Channel Master UHF antenna! Perfect for long range Digital and Analog UHF reception.

Like I say a UHF only antenna CAN get VHF Hi but it is usually at a hindered signal versus a VHF antenna. When Minneapolis did the DTV conversion Fox & NBC went back to their analog spots (9 & 11) and my U120 antenna could only pull a 73-76 signal on the TV. I'm 29 miles from the towers. Switched to a combo and now they are at 100%

Heck my VHF only 1913 picks up UHF too at a low signal..even though its pointed 180 degrees away (that antenna is aimed for a VHF only station 72 miles away...only channel in that market)

Their website also says "VHF range 45 miles".

"UHF only" actually means "UHF gain only". Both my antennas are supposedly UHF only but they both receive VHF fine with my preamp. Both channels are VHF High though, I don't know if they'd get VHF Low, since there's none of those around here. I was told with 2 antennas I need 2 preamps though so I'm going to try the AP8700.

I just put the CM-4228HD up a month ago and I'm NOT looking to replace it. Hence the thread title.

Mr Tony

Dec 1, 2011

TomCat4680 said:
I just put the CM-4228HD up a month ago and I'm NOT looking to replace it. Hence the thread title.

who said you needed to replace it?
Seriously Tom you need to chill. You came here looking for help and all it seems you have done is want to argue with people.

If you are having issues with chanenls dropping out and its Fox then the fact its a UHF only antenna could be part of the reason. If the VHF signal is neutered (which it is on those) and you add an amp all that really does is amplify the neutered signal which results in possibly bigger signal issues. The pre-amp will help with the UHF channels which will help with all the other stations except Fox

TomCat4680

Dec 1, 2011

Iceberg said:
who said you needed to replace it?
Seriously Tom you need to chill. You came here looking for help and all it seems you have done is want to argue with people.

If you are having issues with chanenls dropping out and its Fox then the fact its a UHF only antenna could be part of the reason. If the VHF signal is neutered (which it is on those) and you add an amp all that really does is amplify the neutered signal which results in possibly bigger signal issues. The pre-amp will help with the UHF channels which will help with all the other stations except Fox

it's not just Fox 2, it's all of the stations, even ABC 12 from Flint, as well at WDIV, WTVS, WKBD etc etc. I live on a busy road and cars interfere with the signals on everything!

Mr Tony

Dec 1, 2011

TomCat4680 said:
it's not just Fox 2, it's all of the stations, even ABC 12 from Flint, as well at WDIV, WTVS, WKBD etc etc. I live on a busy road and cars interfere with the signals on everything!

the fact you are 20 miles from the ABC 12 tower and are having issues proves the fact of issues when using a UHF only antenna to pick up VHF.

Like I say I've been there before with that
The Detroit stations show between 50-54 miles but 2Edge: Double edge diffraction. That means there are more "distractions" for the signal to get to you. Conversely the Flint channels all say "line of site" (LOS)

TomCat4680

Dec 1, 2011

Well it's probably because they're sharing the preamp. A 2nd would should solve the problem (right?)

Mr Tony

Dec 1, 2011

are the 2 antennas combined then?
If so I would separate them since Flint is WNW of you and Detroit is SE. They are probably clashing signal wise

2 separate pre-amps would help. I'd put the one that boosts more for Detroit and the existing one (if it amplifies less) on the ones for Flint. You may not even need a amp for Flint being 20 miles away

TomCat4680

Dec 1, 2011

I only have 1 TV and tuner though so I can't feed them to 2 TV's so splitting them would be pointless.

SS did say if I combine them the combiner should be the last thing before the TV. I have it the first thing after the line from the antennas which is fed into the preamp.

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"MysteryMan"

Pub Member / Supporter Cutting Edge

Last reply 4 minutes ago · posted in Computers and Gadgets

Windows 10/11 Download

I created this thread on the original Edgecutter Cutting Edge Forums site. It's simply a place for those to review the latest software available for those using Windows 10 and Windows 11. To date it has received 112,559 views. I have been asked by staff to continue this thread here.

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EarDemon

Oct 13, 2026

If it wasn't for what I want, I wouldn't need any of this.

Do I need a collection of handheld radios, scanners and speed enforcement countermeasures? Nope, but I want them. Very little, if any of the software used to interface with these devices is available on Linux.

WhiteBeard

Oct 13, 2026

EarDemon said:
If it wasn't for what I want, I wouldn't need any of this.

Do I need a collection of handheld radios, scanners and speed enforcement countermeasures? Nope, but I want them. Very little, if any of the software used to interface with these devices is available on Linux.

To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything.

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EarDemon

Oct 14, 2026

WhiteBeard said:
To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything.

For niche use cases, yes I agree. Kali for ethical hacking and security testing, and running a Cacti server for network monitoring are the two things I have experience in. Plus thousands and thousands of other things, but for every day use I just can't see it. The owner of the GMRS repeater that I pay to access is changing the Tx DPL tones tomorrow, while Chirp is available on Linux, the software to program my MXT500 is not.

I run Fedora and Ubuntu in VMWare, honestly I don't care much for the UI of either of them and I don't feel like spending days/weeks to customize the UI to make it look Windows-like when I could just use Windows. The cartoonish dock at the bottom of the screen reminds me of Apple products.

harshness

Oct 15, 2026

EarDemon said:
I don't care much for the UI of either of them and I don't feel like spending days/weeks to customize the UI to make it look Windows-like when I could just use Windows.

What is so fantabulous about the Windows UI? By many accounts, it has been going downhill since Windows 7.

There are Linux desktops that offer Windows or Mac UIs, yet you don't hear much chatter about them outside of questions about when the creators might get sued.

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EarDemon

Oct 15, 2026

harshness said:
What is so fantabulous about the Windows UI?

Because it's what I prefer. I know I've said this a few times, I use Open Shell to give me the cascading start menu a la WIN 95 and NT4.0. The only reason I went from Windows Vista to 7 back in the day was because of Classic Shell. I cannot stand anything other than the OG start menu from 30+ years ago. I'm using ExplorerPatcher to give me Windows 10 UI elements of the taskbar and right click context menus.

If you could take a look at how I set up Windows 95, you'd find many similarities to how I use 11.

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EarDemon

Oct 15, 2026

I could probably use that as a starting point, but I don't like the full size icons. If you have to click on each folder that's also a no-go for me, it has to be cascading.

I used to have Peppermint Linux in a VM, that was about as close as I could get to recreating a Windows NT4.0 style of menu structure, but I could never get it to scale properly in VMWare on a 4K display and eventually gave up.

Whatever the boot up time it's fine with me. The longest part of my bootup is the HP SureStart BIOS integrity check. Once that is done, it's only a few more seconds. I haven't done this reg tweak yet since the reformat, but I switched the bootup animation to the Windows 10 style spinning circle of dots, and it's two and a half rotations. I can live with that.

harshness

Oct 16, 2026

EarDemon said:
Because it's what I prefer.

I hope you don't believe that makes it wonderful (especially when you're using workarounds for Microsoft's malfeasance).

I use LibreOffice as opposed to Microsoft office (even in Windows) because it's UI is like the Office of old, so I'm putting my money where my mouth is (in a manner of speaking). The ribbon was one of the worst ideas to come out Redmond.

HipKat

Oct 16, 2026

EarDemon said:
I could probably use that as a starting point, but I don't like the full size icons. If you have to click on each folder that's also a no-go for me, it has to be cascading.

I used to have Peppermint Linux in a VM, that was about as close as I could get to recreating a Windows NT4.0 style of menu structure, but I could never get it to scale properly in VMWare on a 4K display and eventually gave up.

Whatever the boot up time it's fine with me. The longest part of my bootup is the HP SureStart BIOS integrity check. Once that is done, it's only a few more seconds. I haven't done this reg tweak yet since the reformat, but I switched the bootup animation to the Windows 10 style spinning circle of dots, and it's two and a half rotations. I can live with that.

I used to pin the C: drive to the Win Taskbar and it would open in cascading style

"MysteryMan"

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2026-10 Preview Update Builds: 26300.9818 and 26200.9818 (KB5127936) has been released. Moderate time needed for those choosing to perform a manual download/install/restart. Quality improvements only. No new operating system features.

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Scott Greczkowski

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Dos cackleberrys over easy on top of 2 corned beef hash patties fried in skillet... Chocolate milk.

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