Number of Channels Received

[OneAVONgal]

I purchased a new Winegard HD8200U and a Digital Stream comverter box. I am 57 miles away from the television transmitters in my area. I hear all these people receiving loads of channels all the time. Why do I receive only 7on a good day? They have a good picture most of the time, but some days I only get 3-4 channels. My antenna is about 20 ft high, so we are going to raise it and order a pre-amp. Is there anything we can do to get more?

[winegard]

Good morning OneAVONgal -

Could you tell me your zip code or private message me your full address? Then I can look into your exact situation.

[KNP 2516]

(Admin Edit: Please refrain from calling out specific brand names good or bad. Thank you again for your posts but it is enough to say that you would recommend trying a different converter box without being negative on a specific brand.)

I would also look at the wire you used between the antenna and the television and the amount of splitters you used.

The KEY is that you want a relative "good" level of input at your receiver
(TV) with the minimum noise.
A mast mounted amplifier (doesn't matter if it is called a amplifier or
preamplifier) is the best when you are in a remote area.
In theory it is best if you amplify a "good" signal to a higher level than
a "poor noisy" signal to a higher level. When you start out with crap and
amplify it you just end up with more crap.
All cable has loss and the higher up that you go in frequency (VHF to UHF)
the more loss that the cable has.
If you start with a low level signal at the antenna and then butt it into
coax cable you are going to have less come out at the end than went into it
from the antenna. The amount of loss depends upon a number of factors,
cable type and cable length are the two most important. Cable is rated in
db loss per 100' at X MHz (frequency). RG-6 cable is the cable most used
in TV use. Like all things there is good RG6 and not so good. Belden
1829AC Coax - Series 6 has a loss of 4db/100 feet at 500 MHz (TV Channel
18)
Channel 32 is 580 MHz Channel 52 is 700 MHz a 5 db loss At TV channel 2
the cable would have a loss of 1.4db. So at channel 18 you loose more than
1/2 the power in 100' of cable between the antenna and the TV.