Good Off Air Analog and Digital Amp?

Offroad

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Feb 13, 2004
102
0
I have an attic antenna that I use for Analog off air, and for off air digital on the Dish 811. I normally watch off air SD on analog since it looks better than the SD off air digital on the 811. The HD off air looks great on the 811.

After recently running an RG6 run to my basement the signal from the antenna is now split to a total of three runs. The run heading to the Living room has a splitter with one leg going directly to my Sony HD RPTV and the other going to the 811. The 811 Satellite feed has its own run directly from the Dish. Although my analog signal still looks pretty good, I couldn't help wondering if it could be improved by putting an amp just off the antenna.

I picked up a Recoton 10db 50-900mhz amp at BB as it was the only thing I could find locally (one input, four outputs). Most of my analog channels now look slightly better except for one that was very weak already, it now has alot of lines running at angles through the picture.

Since this amp was a cheap one at $16 I'm wondering if a better amp would provide better signal quality. Since its in the attic it has to be able to handle the temperature extremes of a midwest climate up there.

If I should try a better amp, can someone reccomend a model/brand and a place to get it? What price range should I expect to pay and should I look for a particular DB amplification and frequency range?

Thanks.
 
Some possibilities include the Winegard DA-1118 (http://www.winegard.com/offair/DA1009_1118_etc_chart.htm) and the Channel Master 3042/3043/3044/3045 (http://www.channelmaster.com).

You can buy them at either Warren Electronics (http://www.warrenelectronics.com/), or Stark Electronics (http://www.starkelectronic.com/allmatv.htm).

Cheap amps are easily overloaded by strong local TV and FM stations. My pick is the Winegard DA-1118. If your weak stations are only in the UHF band (channels 14-69), then go with the Winegard DA-405. It passes FM and VHF, but cannot be overloaded by VHF/FM.