Need help with signal distribution

[li4me]

Equip: HD8200U Platinum HD VHF/UHF Antenna+AP8275 Chromstar 2000 Signal Amplifier

Background: I currently have a single 1 to 2 splitter connected after the coax enters the house. Devices using it are a Sony flat-screen and a Hauppauge tuner card in a PC. When I first connected the TV, signal was fine. When I connected the Hauppauge, the weaker channels degraded; picture very flaky. Disconnect the TV and the signal is fine on the Hauppauge. Bottom line, if I only have one of the devices connected (does not matter which one) it works.

My larger problem: Ultimately, I want to connect 2 more TV, and 2 more tuner cards, for a total of 3 of each, and I want to connect my FM tuner/stereo.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Thank you
Steven Wheeler

[TomV]

Hi Steven,

First question is where are you relative to your TV antennas (what is your zip code so we can use TVFool)?

With that said, are you in a valley, behind tall buildings or trees that could block your view of the transmitter antennas?

What kind of cable are you using (RG6, RG59)? What are the approximate cable lengths from the antenna preamp to the splitter and then from the splitter to the device inputs? How comfortable are you with the quality of the cable connectors (old cable subject to previous weather/water degradation, new store bought, you or a friend installed the connectors)?

Tom

[li4me]

Antenna is mounted on top of the house at about 22ft. I am installing a tower that will take the antenna to ~37ft. I shoot at Tulsa, about 56mi away. There are trees and a small hill in the way of a completely clear shot to Tulsa.

Plot below is for Langley, OK 74350; but I actually live at 36.443731,-95.057899 (from Google maps/earth)

Link to 30ft plot I created when I started all of this last year.
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...990098f82c045f

With the antenna at ~22ft we get
2.1, 2.2 - pretty good
6.1, 6.2, 6.3 - OK. breaks up a lot; depends on time of day and weather. Degrades badly when both devices are connected to the splitter.
8.1, 8.2 - excellent
11.1, 11.2 - excellent
23.1, 23.2 - decent with some breakup now and then; also degrades

At one time I had a smaller Chinese made antenna on my shop, Antenna Pros High Gain Digital Outdoor HDTV Antenna AX-909G2 Stealth, purchased from AntennaHub.com. It got most of these channels, though not as strong. And it got 35.x and 41.x which I do not receive with the Weingard.

Cable: I will have to look this weekend. ~120' run from the antenna into the house. Most of the length is due to the 100ft single piece of coax I bought at Radio Shack.

All equipment is relatively new except the splitter; oldest cable is from Nov of 2012. I bought and installed everything myself. In another life long ago I was an electronics tech, so I am pretty comfortable with doing the work.

Thank you for the help
Steve

[TomV]

Steve,

In your location (out in the middle of almost nowhere) you are lucky to get reception at all. It appears you have a very nice setup with the antenna and preamp, both high-gain devices. The longer cable run adds a fair amount of signal loss. With that said, it is a good thing you are planning to increase the antenna height to 37' with the tower. According to TVFool, this increase of about 15' from your current house-top location will add about 6 dB of signal to the system. This is about 4 times the signal you are presently receiving, and that is necessary in your case. This is probably the most cost-effective thing you can do to get a chance at reliable reception.

You are presently at the very low end of semi-reliable reception. Even with the nice preamp, the signals at the antenna are barely above the atmospheric/preamp noise floor and you are fighting signal/noise issues, not just signal attenuation issues. I notice that your best reception is on VHF channels, which I think is typical when compared to UHF.

I would plan on checking performance improvments with the antenna tower in place. I would think that at time you may be able to use a good quality distribution amp prior to the splitter network to compensate for the splitter and cable losses.

You can try the distribution amp now, but I think since this amp multiplies the signal and the noise equally (and adds its own noise) that you may not see an improvement at the TV sets for low level channels (22 and 6 for example).

Good Luck,

Tom

[li4me]

Thank you Tom,

Can you recommend a distribution amp with 6 outputs?

[TomV]

I will assume that the 100+ ft run from the antenna is the input to a distribution amp.

From that point, what are the cable runs to the individual sets? Will you use a run to get upstairs and then split from there, or individual runs from the amp?

I figure you can use a single output amp and use passive splitters from that as opposed to an amp with the splitters built-in, each output driving the same signal level.