Need to improve signal strenght when splitting signal

[archer75]

I need to find some way to get a better singal from my Antenna. I live in Gresham, almost in Boring and antennaweb tells me I am in the yellow zone which is a small multi directional antenna. Well that doesn't work at all.

So I have a medium, directional antenna with a pre amp(all channelmaster). I can get channels tuned in really well 99% of the time. But when I try to split it, shows cut out a lot. It's unwatchable really. I have the antenna pointed for best reception.

I am talking HD here. I have used the dual OTA tuner on a Direct Tivo box and recently on a HDhomerun(dual tuner) for my HTPC.
I have the antenna in my attic currently as i'm not going up on my roof. Long ways up and i'm not quite sure if my ladder would reach anyways.

Is there any way to get a better signal from this antenna/pre-amp so I can split it for dual HD tuners? At this point budget is very much an issue so i'm trying to do this cheap. Perhaps some sort of a distrubution amplifer? Can you use an amp and a pre amp? Which amp should I get?

 

[mastermesh]

I think you can use an amp and preamp, but doing so may cause you to blow the signal up too strong. Would really be best to get that sucker outside on a pole if you could. Wouldn't even need to really be a long pole. I think minimal sized pole on the ground or in a bucket of concrete on the ground so that you can just turn the bucket instead of going up to turn the antenna itself might work since you don't want to get up high yourself. A lot of fta people use concrete filled buckets for dishes. In theory, you could do the same with an antenna pole. Just make sure that there's extra wires you put up on it to stabilize it once you get it aimed (sort of like putting up the stakes in a tent to keep the tent from falling over ) whatever way that you want, otherwise the pole will likely fall down.

 

[elder]

Unless you had a special splitter that passes DC to the preamp your were lowering the voltage to the preamp which would lower gain and raise noise level.

 

[Voyager6]

Your cheapest route would be an outdoor mounted antenna. However, I have had great success with this amp. Channel Master CM 3044 22dB Four Output Indoor Distribution Amplifier (CM3044) | CM3044 [Channel Master] | CM 3044 CM-3044 CM3044 3044 CM3414 CM 3414 CM-3414 3414
This will send four lines out. The 3043 will send out two lines.

 

[archer75]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Last night I hooked up my hdhomerun again to my HTPC(haven't used it since feb) and started watching TV. I had no issues whatsoever. I recorded 4 shows from 4 different channels and watched them today and they had no problems.
Media Center reports my reception for each channel is only 2 bars out of 5 and in bad weather I know it's going to drop and give me problems again.

So I just need to give things alittle boost and I should be ok. Perhaps just a very small distribution amp?
I think at most I could pick up another antenna and put it in the attic also so each tuner could have it's own antenna. I have all the cable I need to do that already.

 

[Jim5506]

The best low dB pre-amp is the Winegard HDP-269. 12dB amplification and highly resistant to overload.

Besure the power injector is between the splitter and the antenna or your pre-amp gets no power and you get no signal at all.

 

[archer75]

The best low dB pre-amp is the Winegard HDP-269. 12dB amplification and highly resistant to overload.

Besure the power injector is between the splitter and the antenna or your pre-amp gets no power and you get no signal at all.

But I already have a pre-amp. Would I then be using 2 pre amps? I have the channelmaster 7777. Would I replace it?

The winegard would be a better choice than a distribution amplifier?

 

[mastermesh]

I don't think you want to replace the 7777 since it's supposed to be about the best preamp out there. You might put on a distribution amp further down the line and try it out... but honestly, I don't know if it'll give you the gain you are wanting... mainly because distribution amps amplify both the signal AND the noise. Preamps like the 7777 at the antenna are best since there isn't a lot of noise before the amp.

A cheaper route than a distribution amp, if you don't mind flipping a switch might be an a/b switch instead of the splitter. I think a/b switches don't have the same problem of cutting the signal in half like splitters since they only have one line in and one line out... and uh, like my father-in-law would say, "you can only watch one tv at a time anyways," that is unless you have a pvr or something...

In my convoluted setup, I'm using several a/b switches since I was having similar problem, but also because I have so much darn equipment and so few coax connectors on the equipment. One a/b switch swaps my signal from the rf box that is getting signals from vcr and dvd player to the signals coming in from a stationary antenna. A second a/b switch is going to switch from that a/b switch to a second antenna that I'll be putting up shortly... going with the a/b to swap antennas so as to reduce the signal loss (that would be worse if I'd I combined the lines with a combiner or backwards splitter - want to use two antennas to maximize possible channels from antenna 2 as with jointenna or combiner you only get one channel out of the second antenna) when swapping from antenna to antenna with rotor. (want to use rotor to try to dx stuff from distant stations that are around 100 or more miles out)

and eventually, when I get my blasted all-in-wonder tv card working again, a third switch will be used to switch between those things and the line in from the computer that will be used to watch stuff like Heroes on the NBC website and stuff like that... I originally didn't need one of those a/b switches because I was running through the antenna in in an fta box, but I discovered, almost by accident that by going through the fta box and/or a number of splitters or backwards splitters I was losing all sorts of signal from the main antenna.... so I am using the a/b to minimize the amount of splitters between the antenna and the actual equipment receiving the signal from the antenna... still a whole mess of coax wires to deal with, but it work for now.

 

[Jim5506]

At your distance I am slightly surprised you don't get overload with the 7777, being less than 20 miles from the towers, I guess the hills shield you. Your get 30 something dB out of the 7777 so I doubt amplification is the problem. You can't amplify what the antenna doesn't see.

At your distance a good high quality antenna (Winegard HD series or Channel Master 36XX series) should do it all for you without any amplifiers. Maybe a pre-amp if you split the signal.

I'd look at the antenna first.

 

[archer75]

At your distance I am slightly surprised you don't get overload with the 7777, being less than 20 miles from the towers, I guess the hills shield you. Your get 30 something dB out of the 7777 so I doubt amplification is the problem. You can't amplify what the antenna doesn't see.

At your distance a good high quality antenna (Winegard HD series or Channel Master 36XX series) should do it all for you without any amplifiers. Maybe a pre-amp if you split the signal.

I'd look at the antenna first.

After doing some digging around I found the paperwork and it says the antenna is the CM4248.

And the preamp is actually the CM7775

 

[Jim5506]

That antenna falls between the 4221 and the 4228 in performance and the CM7775 is very similar to the CM7777 except it is UHF only. Still might be an over load problem at your distance.

BTY, is the power inserter for the pre-amp between the antenna and the splitter or after the splitter?

 

[archer75]

That antenna falls between the 4221 and the 4228 in performance and the CM7775 is very similar to the CM7777 except it is UHF only. Still might be an over load problem at your distance.

BTY, is the power inserter for the pre-amp between the antenna and the splitter or after the splitter?

Between antenna and splitter.