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Pre-amp advice
Greetings All,
I live in an area where TV signals seem to avoid.
However with 4 antennas, and some careful placement of same,
I have managed to extract (barely) enough signal levels to keep my Sony TV happy.
I am looking to try and boost what little signal I get with the addition of a different pre-amp or signal processor.
Here is my current setup:
Antenna 1 is a VHF Yagi pointed South-East, used to bring in a single channel: WTNH (Ch-10) (transmitter in the general area of Bethany, CT.
Antenna 2 is a 4 Bay Bow-Tie pointed Due east that captures the following stations:
Ch 30 (WEDH) Hartford, CT
Ch 31 (WVIT) Hartford, CT
Ch 33 (WCCT) Waterbury, CT (ATSC v3)
Ch 34 (WTIC) Hartford, CT
Ch 28 (WHPX) Hartford, CT (New this week, as Local Ch 28 shut down)
Antenna 3 is also a 4 Bay Bow-Tie pointed North for a single station:
Ch 23 (W23ER-D/WMHT) in Highland, NY
Antenna 4 is a UHF-Yagi pointed South-East to capture:
Ch 21 (WZME/WEDW) near Trumbull, CT
Ch 22 (WCWN) From Schenectady, NY (ATSC v3). This one is most likely a reflection, as Schenectady is due North from here.
The antennas are all joined using 2 way splitters (as joiners) with some single channel filters. These all feed into an RCA TVPRAMP12E before being sent to the the TV.
All wires except the VHF are RG-6. The VHF required RG-11, as it is on the opposite side of the house where the other antennas are. This was the ONLY spot I could find where there was enough usable signal for Ch 10.
Even though Ch 23 transmitter is about 15 miles away, it was a bit challenging to find an area on my property where there was enough signal to decode!
Note that although my location is closer to NYC than to Hartford, I get NO usable stations from the south, as there are a number of large mountains in the way.
Although this setup works reasonably well, none of these signals (except CH 23) is particularly strong. I especially have issues with Ch 33 & 34.
These two channels are fairly close to the level where the TV no longer will decode them. Depending on the weather, there are days where these channels cannot be watched.
I've done as much as I can with antenna location and height. I don't have a lot of property, so there are not a lot of location choices to start with.
I'm thinking that a better pre-amp, or something that would eliminate the signal joiners might help. I'm not sure if the RCA is adding more noise than signal.
Currently, I've looked at:
ClearStream JUICE Preamp
Televes 560483 Dual Input Antenna Preamp
Johansson Smart Amplifier with Auto-Programming, 4 Inputs - KIT7473L2
Televes Avant X 532180
The Avant X is VERY expensive (over $400) but looks like it MIGHT solve a lot of problems.
Anyone had any experience with any of these devices?
Should I splurge on a new pre-amp, or will I be wasting my $$$?
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanx
Richard Rosa
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