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I'm always a bit leery of placing active electronics in a 120° F (or warmer) attic... (I suppose you could call that another rule of thumb.)
Each vendor implements signal metering as they see fit... 2 bars on one set means 'no problem', on another 'not a chance'. Some may be showing raw signal strength as determined by AGC in the tuner front-end, but many (I suspect) are showing some form of inverted error rate or other information derived from the de-muxing process. The problem is, none of the manufactures give any detail and they certainly don't offer calibrated measurements.
If you are seeing the signal indication bouncing or wandering from strong to weak, you can most times expect to see pixelation or loss of picture. Erratic signal strength or quality is a symptom (but not proof) of multipath. This is not an indication of weak signal strength which might be dealt with by amplification at the antenna, instead it suggests signals are arriving via two or more paths, and that at least one of the paths has rapidly changing electrical characteristics.
If you are seeing relatively stable but low meter indication on the problem channel, amplification might help. On the other hand, if the antenna is aimed at an air handler or duct or is mounted close to either, it could be de-tuned (made insensitive) to the channel you are having trouble with.
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If the well is dry and you don't see rain on the horizon, you'll need to dig the hole deeper. (If the antenna can't get the job done, an amp won't fix it.)
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Last edited by GroundUrMast; 9-Mar-2011 at 4:21 AM.
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