Quote:
Originally Posted by blackstone
I may try and raise the antenna a little to see if that helps.
|
Antennas are like real estate--- the three most important things are Location, Location, and Location. In my experience, moving the antenna around can often result in many dB increase in the SNR, vs. picking the right cable (sometimes even choosing RG-11), using low-loss preamp, (e.g. Kitztech KT-200), and other tricks can only result in a few dB at best.
As an example, I spent well over 40 hours mapping out all of the available rooftop area on my house for reception quality/quantity over a period of about 16 months. I found one particular location and mast height where I was able to get 80% of the channels I wanted, but was still missing one key channel. I was just about ready to call it "good enough" when I was able to borrow a big man-lift and fish around for reception up in some nearby trees using my antennas and a handheld portable TV. I was finally able to find a nice sweet-spot up in a big pine tree, where I get all 6 signals (19 channels) with 100% reliability. I used good-quality infrastructure (pre-amps, cables, etc.) to pipe the signal to my house, but the key to success for me was the location.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackstone
Some have a 30 db gain, some 16, some variable.
It doesn't sound like a high gain always gives a better signal
|
A 30 dB probably won't do any better than a 16 dB, unless your downstream losses really are that high. Here is a nice web-based utility to estimate your downstream losses, and by extension, the amount of amplification recommended at the mast.
http://otadtv.com/cables/index.html
Remember, if there's no water in the well, a bigger bucket (more amplification) won't help. You need to dig deeper (get a bigger antenna) or dig the well in a different spot (move the antenna). Or something like that.