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Old 22-Nov-2013, 7:22 AM   #11
StephanieS
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 442
Ok, your runs aren't bad at all with about 80' being your max. I have a 2 antenna set up (91xg UHF beam and a RCA ANT751) each one has it's own 100' lead coming indoors, then after the A/B switch I split to a 20' and then 50' run. The total length is 150' at the second TV.

I mention this because the RCA ANT751, which is a strictly local or suburban antenna doesn't have the signal gain your CM5016 will have. The ANT751 with 150' total run, an A/B switch it's signal passes through and being split twice in addition to being unamplified still puts a reasonable signal at the farthest TV.

At one point on the ANT751, I tried to add a preamp, however with all the local strong stuff at 15 and 24 miles, one of my essential signals at 17db strength and 55 miles out was lost. Removing amplification it returned though. Thus, the lesson is amplification isn't always to quote Charlie Sheen, a case of "winning."

Sounds like you are ready to add layer upon layer, carefully noticing at what level you may need to add amplification.

Good luck!

Edit: If adding amplification is needed, I may opt for the Channel Master 3414 at the end of your 45' drop and let it provide 8 db of amplification to your 4 split leads to overcome losses.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_6593414...er-reviews-tab


Quote:
@StephanieS: Thank you for your input as well. Given the radar plots I suspected that I should be able to get better reception than what I'm getting currently. It's nice to have confirmation. I currently only have a single lead as recommended while I get everything sorted out. The only reason I have amplification is that it was built into the antenna. I will certainly try without amplification with the CM5016 antenna and work from there. As to the splitter, I would expect it to be best to split at the point to produce the least overall total length of cable. That would put the split point at about 45 feet of cable with the 4 additional cable runs being approximately 16', 16', 28' and 18'.

Last edited by StephanieS; 22-Nov-2013 at 7:51 AM.
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