OTA HDTV Antenna Reception - Indoor boosted setup

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This weekend I bought a Terk Trinity tri-modal indoors HDTV antenna for receiving local Over The Air digital broadcasts. It was kind of an impulse buy because I intended to research it more and order online but there we were in Meier and this one was double boosted- amplied at antennas (has three) and then amps that signal to the TV's input. It also looked quite attractive, sort of like a very thin wireless router with three articulatible pole antennas. It doesn't look bad at all on the a/v shelf next to the tv.

So anyhow my TV has a signal meter in the menu for OTA digital signal strength. I've noticed that if the signal drops below 70 (scale of 0 -100) the picture drops out and I get a text box advising "weak or no signal" then it will come back and work okay until it drops below 70 again. This is on a clear day with no bad weather weather. Only one of the channels does that, the others show a signal strength of 80 or better and stay pretty steady. I'm probably about 15 miles from the broadcast towers. It is the local NBC affiliate that drops below 70 every so often and drops out for a second or two.
 
Ehh I'm not too fond of amplifiers unless you're just out in the middle of nowhere and have no other choice.

Have you tried an outdoor antenna or even one you put in an attic?

I put one of these in my parents attic and it picks up signals from 100+ miles away. It's a shame that OTA tv is overall quite bland, though. LOL.
 
How far away are you from the towers, and what direction are they?

I was lucky to get away with a cheap 10 dollar amazon flat antenna.

I believe an attic or roof mounted unit may work better for you.
 
Preamps are for weak signal work. If you are too close to a powerful station the preamp can be overloaded and a condition called "desense" (among others) develops which causes the preamp to fail to amplify properly. Line amps, which are used to compensate the loss in a long run of coax are a different bird and usually have an adjustable gain control to keep from overloading. You can't desense an antenna itself, often a good antenna and a rotator is a better idea than a "high gain" preamp.
 
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Originally Posted By: Reddy45
Ehh I'm not too fond of amplifiers unless you're just out in the middle of nowhere and have no other choice.

Have you tried an outdoor antenna or even one you put in an attic?

I put one of these in my parents attic and it picks up signals from 100+ miles away. It's a shame that OTA tv is overall quite bland, though. LOL.

My wife has some kind of cable and there is 132 channels and there is nothing to watch. I don't understand the draw to TV programs. A.D.D. maybe?
 
I mainly wanted local news and this appears to be getting it done. Have Sling TV and a Chromecast for other stuff.
 
I live 50 miles from my broadcast stations. I got a cheap outdoor directional antennae and its pretty awesome.
 
I sometimes have issues like you mention. I had a good outdoor antenna put on in January and the local ABC station sometimes has issues due to actually being too close....it overloads the system occasionally.

The picture is actually BETTER on antenna, especially football. And I'm saving $1200 per year now.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
....I'm probably about 15 miles from the broadcast towers.


No need for ANY amplification at that distance (over modulation issue's come to mind)....try unplugging the power supply and see if that helps.
Or better yet, find a cheap old antenna and mount it outside as high as possible and re-scan for stations (Height=Gain!). I Guarantee that you will get any available OTA station in the vicinity
 
I have an old saucer shaped antenna from radio shack on my roof with a built in rotor. The internal parts rotate, you can't see anything move from outside. I understand it has some kind of amplifier/booster built into it but I still have some difficulty getting some stations about 60 miles away. Maybe the existing amp is to get rid of line loss in the co-axial cable that's 60ft long?
Can I add an amplifier to this setup?
 
Originally Posted By: WobblyElvis
I have an old saucer shaped antenna from radio shack on my roof with a built in rotor. The internal parts rotate, you can't see anything move from outside. I understand it has some kind of amplifier/booster built into it but I still have some difficulty getting some stations about 60 miles away. Maybe the existing amp is to get rid of line loss in the co-axial cable that's 60ft long?
Can I add an amplifier to this setup?


If you are receiving stations 60 miles away don't touch a thing ... you're getting about 30 miles more than they were designed for.
 
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The old style Realistic (Radio Shack) antenna in my attic since 1996 picks up well over 100 OTA channels. I'd say the garbage to desirable programming ratio is similar to basic cable. I think almost all the channels in my area are broadcast over "UHF" frequencies so only a small section of my antenna actually picks up the signal. What's really funny is that when I enter my address on antennaweb.org I am informed that I cannot pick up any OTA channels. If I move the pin a block south I am informed that I can pick up 60 channels.
 
Thanks for that website antennaweb.org. Looks like it's picking up everything worthwhile except the local PBS tower which is east-southeast. Everything else it's getting is pretty much directly south.

Based on advice here, I've switched the pre-amp off and it actually may have helped.

Between locals from the antenna, Netflix, Youtube, and my Sling Orange pkg... I'm good. Actually may drop Netflix, haven't used it much lately.
 
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