[GroundUrMast]

Thanks for double checking the report Pete. Now that we're confident in your TV Fool report, I think that even a 91XG in the attic would only see the WNPI, real CH-23 and WWYF, real CH-18 signals intermittently, when the atmospheric conditions are favorable. The signal from WWNY on real CH-7 should not be expected at all when using a UHF only antenna in an attic.

In general, reception can be tested by using just the antenna, a cable up to 50' long and a single TV with a good tuner - no amplifiers or splitters. Amplifiers are applied when you have cable or splitter loss to overcome, they don't 'pull' additional signal from the cable, antenna or air. The most effect location for an amplifier is at the antenna, before the signal is degraded by loss in a run of coax. I say all that to be sure future readers understand that if the antenna is not producing a reliable signal, amplification is not going to be of much help.

Back to your case specifically, removing 40' of cable is not completely insignificant, but that would only result in about 2 dB signal improvement. I have to wonder if there was a problem with the cable that was changed from a 40' to a 10'.

I have a very difficult time recommending a single 30 dB amplifier. Most will be prone to overloading which causes signal distortion. That you have to use two amplifiers now may reflect the poor reception conditions forced on you by the antenna location. But it may indicate a problem with a cable or connector. Even if you have need for that much amplification due to cable and splitter losses, you need to consider whether TVs close to the output of a 30 dB amplifier would suffer overloading on strong signals.

From you last post, I understand that the TV most distant from the antenna has 150' of coax and two splitters to contend with. One of the splitters is built into the Microline amplifier. The math says that at the highest UHF frequency, you should have no more than 9 dB loss in the coax. A 4-way splitter should have no more than 8 dB loss and an 8-way, no more than 12 dB loss. All that loss adds up to 29 dB.

To slightly improve your system performance, I'd suggest that the Microline amp be located at the antenna. It's a 15 dB amp, followed by a 4-way splitter (15 - 8 = a net gain of 7 dB per port). On paper, the +7 dB per port is enough to drive the three 'upstairs' TVs and a 100' run of RG-6 coax to the basement. At the end of the 100' run to the basement, insert the 15 dB Antronix single output amp which directly feeds the 8-way splitter. Be sure to terminate all unused splitter ports with a 75Ω resistor cap.

This arrangement will provide at lest 2 or 3 dB improvement in net system noise margin and only cost some cable rearranging.