Anyone try a preamp for their rooftop antenna?

[chupacabra]

Hello,
I am now trying out a 'tampa bay special' right now (it's a beast of a monster, I hope my HOA doesn't have a cow).

Anyway I have it on a 20' mast (four 5' masts from Home Depot).

It consists of 2 antennas the top pointed due west to channel 10, the bottom due south to the other channels.

The problem is still Channel 10 - it comes in so weak, there is a line of trees in the way.

I am being told a Channelmaster amplifier will help. The amp is 2 pieces, 1 off the antenna, the 2nd part is powered out to the STB.

Anyone out there try this? Does it really improve the signal strength?

Thanks.

[passedpawn]

Well, here's the bad news and the good news.

Bad News: an amplifier is for overcoming losses from your antenna to your STB. If you have any splitters in there, or if the cable length is over 50 feet, and amplifier may help.

Your STB does not really benefit from an amplifier. It has an ULTRA-sensitive receiver that can tune in any signal it can find on the cable. Its real challenge is separating the signal from the other noise/stations on the cable. When people judje STB reception, what they are really judging is how well it can pull a signal out of the muddy RF spectrum, and how well it handles ghosting (multipath), etc.

When the amplifier boosts the signal at the antenna, it also boosts the noise the same way; the job of the STB does not get any easier. Also, the amplifier adds its own noise, so it may, in fact, make your reception worse.

Ask yourself, if an amplifer makes reception better, and they are relatively cheap, why doesn't the STB have one built in? (answer: they do).

Anyhoo, here's the GOOD NEWS: they are cheap. Just try one out and see what happens! I use one (I have a fairly long cable length) and it does help with my setup. Good luck.

[Floyd]

When you hook up a bay area special antenna, make sure the connection between the antennas is on the correct set of wing nuts. There were some model runs that made it possible to have the interconnect on the downlead terminals, but the newest ones have the 300-ohm twin-lead interconnect already attached, or even riveted on to prevent any mixup.

As has been noted, the pre-amp needs a certain level signal on the input to amp it properly. If you start with a signal that is weak and grainy, then the output will ususally look bad in analog, and in digital I would think that the reduced signal-to-noise ratio would add some errors.
If you have a long lead in, or have some splitters in the path, the pre-amp may be a good solution.

[chupacabra]

Thanks guys,
Good information. I have less than 50' of coax, my only reason is that channel 10 come in with 2 or 3 bars, while the others came in with 8 - 9 bars on the STB strength meter. Which means I usually loose 10 first during crappy weather.

But if the amp is going to increase noise, then I don't think it's worth it, I can live with the occasional channel 10 drops then.

Thanks.

FYI, they wanted to charge me 89.00 for a channelmaster preamp.

[OccamMD]

I would probably go with the channelmaster 4/8-bay directional UHF into the trap on the special. It will do a very good job at eliminating multi-path and it has good gain. I would do this before the amp.

The other thing to try is bring channel 10 into a separate coax connection with a switchbox at the STB. Kind of a nuisance, but it could drop out any combining you are having from the 2 antennas. I hate combiners for the most part, though they have their place.

Try the station by itself (10) and see if that works. That would let you know if combining them is giving you some trouble.