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Old 1-Apr-2012, 4:24 PM   #61
slowhike
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scott784 View Post
Tim,
If you want to use a splitter, I think GroundUrMast has given you some excellent tips. As for myself, I am not a big fan of splitters. It's like the analogy of flowing water through a faucet.... and now you've split that water flow into two paths in different directions. It's a given that there's going to be signal loss before the coax ever hits any of your TVs when you have splitters involved. Now, would it be enough loss to cause you to lose stations? That is debatable.

But if you are going to purchase a splitter, a 3 way splitter (based on your requirements) sounds like the best plan. I would deffinitely think about getting a preamp to boost your signal if you plan on splitting the the signal 3 ways. Even without splitters, preamps are not bad to have in the mix if you have such things as long coax cable runs between the antenna and the television. I've got a Winegard HDP 269 hooked up to my outdoor Winegard 9095P. This preamp and downlead cable only service one TV, but it's working well for me.

In my particular case, I never gave much serious consideration to getting the signal split off my main downstairs living room TV. I've got a load baring wall between the Living Room and the bedroom upstairs where I've got the other TV. There was going to be no easy way to have a splitter and tie these two TVs together. Well, that is, unless I wanted to punch another hole in the outside of my house and feed more coax back inside (this time into the upper level of the house versus the pilot hole that was drilled to get the coax from outside to my downstairs living room on the lower level.

I found it MUCH easier to dedicate a second dedicated antenna just for my bedroom TV. I've got it ran behind the wall (upstairs) that feeds directly into attic space. I bought a Clearstream 4 from AntennasDirect (mast not included) and installed this in the attic space just above my upstairs bedroom. The antenna is actually in the sweet spot (on the south side of the house) where it can get at the signals from the SW (Charlotte) and SW (the Triad stations. Because this antenna is installed in the sweet spot of my attic, it is able to get signals almost as well as my outdoor Winegard 9095P! And who would have ever thought that?

The result? I never had to worry about signal loss with a splitter as each TV has its own dedicated antenna. And to my amazement, my Clearstream 4 is working almost as well as my outdoor Winegard 9095P with a HDP269 preamp as I was saying before. So this is just something for you to ponder as far as getting separate antennas for the other TVs and putting them inside the attic. Of course, it's really ideal if you can find the sweet spot in your attic for placement and run as much coax as needed to get to any attic antenna installs.

Aside from splitters, and aside from running your own separate dedicated antennas for additional TVs, I believe there is an electronic device that will actually allow you to get the OTA signal from the main TV (that is hooked up to OTA) to the unconnected TV and feed that TV wirelessly. Sound too good to be true? Well, I don't know much about it but someone at Best Buy was insisting that it worked. But I never tried it because I went with a second, dedicated antenna for my bedroom. So it made all of this other stuff a moot point in my case. But GroundUrMast might have some good feedback on this wireless device for getting OTA signals from one TV (that is fed with OTA) to another in the house that is not hooked up at all.
Scott

PS I am just curious. Did you decide (from last winter) to permanently go with a rotator on the outdoor chimney mount Winegard. Of have you just left it pointed in one direction?
I did not get a rotator. I have just basically chosen to leave it in one of the two best directions (east).
I get most of the stations I want, including ION.

I remembered that I had a splitter in the basement from Time Warner. It has their name on it, it's a 4 way splitter & each output says 8.
I took it to the store you had told me about in Winston-Salem to ask their opinion. The guy you told me about being knowledgeable & helpful (Fred) was not there but another older fellow seamed both knowledgeable & helpful.
He said the Time Warner splitter should work just fine, so I bought terminators for the two out puts that will not be used for now & some shorter lengths of coaxial cable.

I put the splitter in the attic, just below were the antenna is on the roof.

It turns out that my new roomy has an older TV so he needs to either get a converter box or a new TV, therefore, only my TV in the living room is being used at the moment.
So far, I see no loss in signal strength, but I have no meter to show what the actual signal strength is on each channel.

No pre-amp. I won't get one unless I see that I need one. I remember reading were GroundUrMast talked about a pre-amp in some cases can cause a problem were the local signals are already strong.
But it may make just as much sense to get a second (& maybe a third) dedicated antenna.

But I would also be curious to hear the reviews on the "electronic device that will actually allow you to get the OTA signal from the main TV" that you talked about.

Thanks. ...Tim
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Old 10-Apr-2012, 8:36 PM   #62
slowhike
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I'm hoping to get a few more suggestions.
I'm getting weaker signals than before, at least on some stations.
My TV does not have a signal meter, so I have to do some guesstimation in the following report.

I'm quite sure I was seeing some increase in pixialtation & drop-outs as the large oak trees (two at each end of the house) began to leaf out.
And I believe I saw a further increase in pixialtations drop-outs after adding the 4-way splitter I described in my last post here.
The signals are certainly not as reliable as they were a couple months ago.

As I read other threads about pre-amps & such, I see that a pre-amp does not improve the signal, it just pushes it further down the line.

So I'm wondering if I would benefit from a stronger antenna.
Sure do wish I had a signal meter.
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Old 10-Apr-2012, 10:30 PM   #63
frank55
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Quote:
Originally Posted by slowhike View Post
I'm hoping to get a few more suggestions.
I'm getting weaker signals than before, at least on some stations.
My TV does not have a signal meter, so I have to do some guesstimation in the following report.

I'm quite sure I was seeing some increase in pixialtation & drop-outs as the large oak trees (two at each end of the house) began to leaf out.
And I believe I saw a further increase in pixialtations drop-outs after adding the 4-way splitter I described in my last post here.
The signals are certainly not as reliable as they were a couple months ago.

As I read other threads about pre-amps & such, I see that a pre-amp does not improve the signal, it just pushes it further down the line.

So I'm wondering if I would benefit from a stronger antenna.
Sure do wish I had a signal meter.
Man get yourself this antenna and a rotor and if needed get a signal amp for the mast,
you can use the one you alredy have above or under with a uhf/vhf separator.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-pla-_-NA-_-NA
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Old 12-Apr-2012, 3:20 AM   #64
GroundUrMast
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Quote:
Originally Posted by slowhike View Post
I'm hoping to get a few more suggestions.
I'm getting weaker signals than before, at least on some stations.
My TV does not have a signal meter, so I have to do some guesstimation in the following report.

I'm quite sure I was seeing some increase in pixialtation & drop-outs as the large oak trees (two at each end of the house) began to leaf out.
And I believe I saw a further increase in pixialtations drop-outs after adding the 4-way splitter I described in my last post here.
The signals are certainly not as reliable as they were a couple months ago.

As I read other threads about pre-amps & such, I see that a pre-amp does not improve the signal, it just pushes it further down the line.

So I'm wondering if I would benefit from a stronger antenna.
Sure do wish I had a signal meter.
I put the oak trees at the top pf the list of possible causes for the deteriorating signal quality.

Because you have plans to connect more sets, addition of a preamp is not unreasonable. A high input design such as the Antennas Direct CPA-19 would have all the gain needed to overcome cable and splitter losses. If you are only dealing with a signal level problem, the preamp will help. The preamp will not resolve multipath or similar transmission impairments. (IMO, the only other preamp worth consideration in this application is the Winegard HDP-269 which has similar gain and high input capability but slightly less impressive noise specifications.)

For now, I'm reluctant to tell you to go get a bigger antenna. Instead, how tall are the oak trees? And, can you consider a mast or tower tall enough to get above the tree tops?
__________________
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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Old 12-Apr-2012, 4:14 AM   #65
slowhike
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I can't tell you right off just how tall the oaks are but they are probably about twice as high as the 1.5 story house. It would take a heck of a mast to get above them.
But I am planning to remove two large, lower branches that are about antenna level & blocking the two best signal directions a considerable amount.
I may try that first & see if I can tell a difference before buying a pre-amp.
I'll report back later. Thanks.
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