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Originally Posted by rwilson1206
Thanks for the help Dave, I was just thinking its pretty generous of you to reply to everyone one of my posts. Appreciate it...
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You're welcome! Your situation is both an antenna design problem and a systems engineering problem, which is doubly interesting for me!
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Originally Posted by rwilson1206
One other thing, then what is the difference between an amp and a pre-amp? Is an amp for when you add splitters into a system? And a pre-amp for cable runs?
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A pre-amp is an RF amplifier that's installed at the antenna prior to a long cable run to the receiver. A pre-amp can be used to restore loss due to splitters. A ditribution amp is a combination of amplifier and splitter into one box.
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Originally Posted by rwilson1206
How do I know if I am experiencing cable loss? If I get little breakups here and there, is that due to cable loss?
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You will always suffer loss in the connection between antenna and receiver. The amount of loss depends on the type and length of cable used. The dropouts you see are not due to cable loss - you do not have enough noise margin to protect against random fades.
I know it's hard to believe, but once you have enough amplification in the line to overcome cable loss, additional amplification will not improve reception quality. You need to capture more signal from the air, as was discussed in the post on noise margin.
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Originally Posted by rwilson1206
Another thing, I dont know if I want to build my own antenna or not, not 100% interested, work full time, school part time... not that it will take that long once I do everything, but I was trying to find an old-school bowtie vhf antenna to buy. I can't find one. I can find a uhf bowtie, is that the same thing? Just put it in the vhf female end of the USVJ? Would an indoor dipole vhf antenna work, just mount it outside, I read in a post somewhere else that it works, Just keep the dipole perpendicular to the source.
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It is a shame that someone does not market a VHF bowtie. I suppose the thinking is that there's a very small market for such a beast. Commercially available UHF bowties are obviously smaller, so performance at high-VHF is less than you'd get from one properly sized for VHF. So, yes, you
could connect a UHF bowtie to the VHF input of the USVJ. I don't think you'll be pleased with the results. Using an indoor VHF dipole could work, too. Keep the elements horizontal and aim the perpendicular towards Cleveland. Just keep in mind that any "stuff" in the base of that type of antenna would be a bit sketchy for outdoor use.
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Originally Posted by rwilson1206
FYI: I rescanned and picked up 2-1. Its CBS, which is the same as WOIO, and I get CBS youngstown too.
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That's KDKA, Pittsburgh!