Quote:
Originally Posted by GroundUrMast
Thanks for posting your TV Fool report. It helps a great deal. To answer your question re. preamp power supplies, you need to follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully in order to avoid sending power into the TV tuner. In some cases the preamp power supply could be damaged due to high current into a low DC resistance in the tuner input. In some cases, no damage will occur, but the DC current will magnetize the input transformer core in the tuner. If this is the case, the input transformer may not pass much signal to the internal stages of the tuner circuitry. Preamp power supplies usually consist of a wall transformer, and a 'power injector' which may look like a splitter, but it's not a signal splitter. The power injector is designed to send power 'up' the coax while preventing signal from traveling into the wall transformer. After looking at your TV Fool report and seeing the model number of the antennas you're using, I can see why you have had a hard time with WOI reception. Neither the GE antenna nor the RCA antenna are designed to receive real channels 2 through 6 (Low-VHF band). A single combination UHF/H-VHF/L-VHF antenna would be able to get the job done... with no amplifiers needed.
Several 'all channel' antennas come to mind, Antennacraft C290, Channel Master CM-3016 and Winegard HD7010. Mounted outside in the clear, you should have enough signal power to drive at least four sets through a passive 4-way splitter.
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Of the antennas you've suggested
WINEGARD HD7010 2-69 VHF/UHF 30/45 miles $45.94 (free shipping)
Channel Master CM-3016 2-69 VHF/UHF 45 miles $39.99 + $7.49
Antennacraft C290 2-6 VHF 55 miles $45.39 + $9.55
All have specs no better than and in some cases worse than either antenna I purchased though I paid less for both antennas combined than any one of them (I had to of course pay for the amps but given reception claims are comparable I'd have likely needed them anyway and with the Antennacraft I'd have needed a UHF antenna) The splitter I am using on the RCA preamp power source is a GE 2 way 5-2500mhz (model 87623) not allowing currect to back up into the TV but transferring it effectively to the preamp which was a true concern of mine.
In any event I am getting all channels crystal clear now