[John Candle]

The reason the meter is reading high is because the amplifier in the small antenna is increasing the signal level and the electronic noise level. Now this is what is hard to explain. The amplifier does not make more signal out of the signal that is being received at the metal elements of the antenna. However from a 'point of view' the amplifier adds more power to the signal and this added power from the short length of coax from the indoor antenna when connected directly to the tv can overload tv tuners and be the cause of a bad picture. However the added power is useful to over come coax line and splitter losses. . One might think of it this way. Think of a balloon that is not blown up , now think of the balloon after the you blow air in to it. It is bigger and from a 'point of view' it can do more , but really it's still the same balloon. Or think of a tv picture line doubler , a copy of the original lines of picture information are made and put in between the spaces of the original lines of the tv picture. Yes it does look better , but there is really nothing new there. DVD player Up scalers do the same thing. There is more to it then this. This is my current shot at the explanation.