Antenna amplifier upgrade for Terk HDTVO
 

Hi,
I have a Terk HDTVO antenna on the roof, I'm running about 35 ft of coax to my receiver. The amplifier the antenna came with seems very cheap and flimsy.I'm wondering if I might get rid of occasional glitches on my reception and maybe even receive some additional channels by replacing the amplifier with a better amplifier. if so do you have any recommendations?

Please read through this Guide then post your TV Fool Report so we can have real data to base our advice on.

Here's my report.
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...c77a7b71953c8c
I get most of the channels I want, except for KREM (CBS)
I could dial it in by changing the direction on my antenna but I would have to sacrifice my PBS channels.
The other day something strange happened. I got CBS in digital but then I lost my ABC programming.A day later it went back to no CBS but ABC instead.I have no idea why that happened because as far as I know CBS is only available in analog from the mountain where the transmitters are, and my receiver can only get digital signals.
Anyway, I'm not necessarily trying to get more channels (even though it would be nice to get KREM too) I'm only trying to get the most stable signal possible for the direction that I have my antenna aimed towards. That's why I was wondering if getting a different amplifier for my antenne might give it a little extra performance. I bassically like my Terk HDTVO, it gets a lot of channels and it is pretty small so it does not look awful on top of my house. I understand that there are some antennas that will give me a stronger signal but they all seem to look really big and ugly.

I won't try to convert you to seeing antennas as objects of great beauty. I can only assure you that the laws of physics apply, universally, without prejudice. In this case if you are trying to receive a moderate or weak signal, you will need to aim the right size antenna at it. Just as astronomers have to use big telescopes to see faint stars, you and I have to use a big antenna to receive weak radio waves (the math is identical, the physics principals are the same).

Amplifiers are easy to sell because they seem to promise something for nothing...

An amplifier is not an antenna. An amplifier is only useful for overcoming signal loss in the cables and splitters that come after the antenna. Amplifiers not only increase the amplitude of the signal fed into them, they distort the signal and add noise to the signal. If too much signal is fed into an amplifier, the output will be extremely distorted, virtually useless.

Adding a second amplifier downstream of the built in amplifier will very often result in that extreme distortion, leaving you with less or even no channels viewable.

If I lived next door to you, you would see two antennas on my roof, an Antennacraft HBU-22 (or larger) aimed south and an Antennacraft HBU-33 (or larger) aimed at Spokane (Winegard makes similar antennas that would be excellent choices as well). Some would use an A/B switch to select between antennas, I use SiliconDust network attached tuners instead. I doubt that any amplifier would be needed unless I was splitting to several sets.

Are you aware the the amplifier is built in to the antenna. I am not aware of any way to remove it.

What looks like an amplifier is really a power inserter.

A relevent example
 

Television reception.
 

I agree with GUM and TG. People have some very strange ides about antennas. And want to get something for nothing. The laws of physics apply , no matter what your point of view is. How many Tv's will be connected??