[crashHD]

Originally Posted by ADTech

That symptom suggests that trees are your problem, not the antenna. If you do not or cannot address this issue replacing the antenna may turn out to be a disappointing adventure... or not. It is impossible to guess accurately when trees are in the signal path.

Trees could be an issue with wind, but I'm not so convinced about weather. Dropouts due to weather could be clear skies locally at my house, but heavy thunderstorms 20 miles west of me, between my antenna and the transmitter.
The current old antenna sits atop a broken rotator and tends to swing it's aim by 15 degrees when the wind is just wrong. Also when it's not windy, it tends to set at an aim that is about 20 degrees (visual estimation) from what tvfool signal maps would suggest is optimal.
I'm not thrilled about having to pull through the trees, but I'm not able to clear them with what I have, so I'm going for as high as possible. I'm hoping the DB8e might be better at rejecting some of the multipath I think I'm getting from tree limbs.

Originally Posted by ADTech

Don't. The single stage ones overload too easily and the adjustable gain one, as I commented elsewhere last year after running one through my lab, appeared to have no reason for even existing.

Thanks for the heads up. The AD juice unit looks good. First glance at it's webpage didn't show any gain or noise figures. It looks like a good tough weathertight enclosure. It looks to me like it's made to mount to the mast, and maybe even heatsink through that mounting, which I like a lot better than what with the kitztech ones looked like they simply furnished a PVC box to mount it in.

Originally Posted by ADTech

Not necessarily. Sometimes, it's better to use separate amps, sometimes it's better to use a single amp, sometimes it doesn't matter. Your reports suggests that it likely won't matter.

Most consumers use the wrong factors in selecting an amp, they simply get the one with the highest gain number they can find assuming the bigger is better so the highest gain amp has to be the best one.

I don't disagree with that, but that's not the direction I was going, although upon further consideration I may still have not been on the best track. I was looking for the preamp with the lowest noise figure, as much like the fact you can't amplify into existence a signal that isn't there, noise introduction is also not removable once introduced. If I can get a low noise preamp with enough strength to cover my distribution strength needs as well, that should eliminate the noise introduction of a distribution amp, should it not?

Originally Posted by ADTech

This selection logic is usually wrong about 90% of the time. The easiest method of selecting the gain of a preamp is to account for the total insertion loss in the distribution system and just round up to the next closest available amp. Since most consumer installs have less than a 100' of coax (~5.5 dB/100') and a 4 (or less) port splitter (~8 dB), that usually means that a 15-20 dB amp is almost always the most appropriate choice, again, for probably 90% of folks. Higher gain amps should be reserved for those situations where there a larger distribution systems and weaker signals or some combination thereof. Higher gain amps tend to be more susceptible to overloading so they must be used with caution in locations where there are strong local signals, including those outside the TV broadcast band.

I'll be about 60 feet from the antenna to the 4 port splitter, then each TV will have at most another 40 feet run to the wall, probably (undecided yet) one more split in two to feed both the Tivo and the TV's tuner (does a dual tuner DVR count as a split?)

That makes roughly 100 feet total of cable(~5.5dB), one 4 way split (~8dB), and one two way split (~3.5dB?) That gives me 17dB, right? Plus a little extra because I think I have room then without hitting overload, so a good preamp here would be something in say 20-24dB, with the lowest noise figure I can find?

Originally Posted by ADTech

Save yourself some hassle and mount the preamp down lower on the tower where you can reach it from a ladder or even the ground. You'll sacrifice just a bit of your system noise figure, but you'll make it simple to service or experiment.

I like that idea. I'm willing to climb the tower, but not looking forward to it. Just 10 feet down from the antenna would make a lot of difference, without adding enough cable to induce a meaningful quantity of signal loss.

Originally Posted by ADTech

We've been out of stock on the Juice for several weeks, but we have a replenishment shipment due to hit the warehouse any day now. It should be available shortly.

Thanks!