Would an amp help my situation? Or a different antenna?
 

Hi - I recently acquired an RCA ANT751R antenna and mounted it outside my apartment. I am in Santa Clara, CA. TV fool report here.

With careful aiming - I can get most of what I want - the major networks. CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, etc. But some of them - especially CBS and NBC - are pretty weak. Last night all were working just fine, now CBS and NBC are choppy. I am wondering if a different antenna would be the fix, or potentially an amplifier. Amazon has pretty positive reviews for the RCA TVPRAMP1R. It's very inexpensive, too. Could that potentially help?

If it matters, I have about 15 feet of RG-6 between my TV and my antenna. I can't really reduce that, unfortunately.

Also, I do not know if these numbers will help - but right now, here are signal strengths, SNR, and AGC for a couple channels of interest.

CBS 5.1 72%, 17db, 110% (the 72% frequently jumps down to 22% though, this is choppy)
NBC 4.1 66%, 6-13db, 64-115% (very jumpy right now - station not coming in at all)
FOX 2.1 66-71%, 6-17db, 108% (signal strength occasionally drops to 22% - this is choppy)
ABC 7.1 75%, 20db, 101% (this channel looks great)
MeTV 20.2 82%, 26db, 100% (this channel looks great)

All of these were solid last night... So this is sad.

What do you all suggest?

Thanks!

Greetings nleahcim,

An RCA ANT751R is a good antenna for your situation. There is healthy amount of signal available for you to work with.

A preamp would not be advised, with only 15 of coax and 1 TV you don't need amplification. What I would focus on is the location of your mounting. Are you shooting thorough a tree? I would test several different locations and see if reception stabilizes. To me it seems you are getting signal interruption rather than lack of signal.

Did you use the out of box transformer on the ANT751? Some have reported it is very cheap is performance is shoddy. On my ANT751 I replaced my out of the box transformer with a more robust unit.

The ANT751R pointed at magnetic 295 ought to be plenty to have all the major broadcasts from San Francisco.

Cheers.

Hi Stephanie! I am shooting through a tree, as well as some buildings. I've done my best to shoot it between two trees - but I don't have a lot of options where I am, unfortunately. I see one other potential location that would be a little less tree-ey, but would add 10 feet or of coax. I will try to give that a shot.

I am using the original transformer. Do you have a suggestion for a better one?

I should mention that I do not know the exact angle that I'm aimed - but it's aimed a little East of North - I tweaked it till my signal seemed to be optimal.

Edit: I see that most stations are West of North - as you suggested. I've tried re-aiming and that seems to have improved things. I need to test this out for a day or two before being certain. I will report back! Definitely still interested to hear about the other transformer that you think would be better.

Regarding transformers - I see that RCA has a couple and Winegard has one as well. RCA's outdoor one looks like what I have, and their other one does not seem to be made to go outside. The Winegard one also appears to be an outdoor one. Maybe that's the one I want?