How to set up signal booster?

[MartyMcFly]

I have a question about a regular HD antennae, with a signal booster. I originally had the antennae setup and there were 2 local channels that I was getting bad reception on. Fox and NBC. The rest of my locals which are within 2 degrees of each other and 2-3 miles come in great. So I bought a 28db PH61112 outdoor signal amplifier to boost the signal on FOX and NBC. It comes with a preamp and a amp.
Im not sure if i have it setup right. I have the preamp connected to the antennae on a 3 foot coaxial cable. The I have my 50 foot Coaxial coming out of the output of the preamp down to my tv. Then I have the amp hooked up and another 3 foot coaxial coming out of the output to the TV.
Is that right? cause it does not seem to be bosting the signal much. Should I move the amp up next to the preamp?
I would follow instrucions on how to set it up but there arent any with it. Even the picture isnt clear...

 

[Pepper]

McFly! Hello!! McFly! (always wanted to say that)

You'll have a better chance at a good answer if this is in the proper forum (HD Over-The-Air(OTA)). One of the mods will probably move it for you.

 

[MartyMcFly]

Oh sorry. Yeah can they move it?

 

[Tower Guy]

I have a question about a regular HD antennae, with a signal booster. I originally had the antennae setup and there were 2 local channels that I was getting bad reception on. Fox and NBC. The rest of my locals which are within 2 degrees of each other and 2-3 miles come in great. So I bought a 28db PH61112 outdoor signal amplifier to boost the signal on FOX and NBC. It comes with a preamp and a amp.
Im not sure if i have it setup right. I have the preamp connected to the antennae on a 3 foot coaxial cable. The I have my 50 foot Coaxial coming out of the output of the preamp down to my tv. Then I have the amp hooked up and another 3 foot coaxial coming out of the output to the TV.
Is that right? cause it does not seem to be bosting the signal much. Should I move the amp up next to the preamp?
I would follow instrucions on how to set it up but there arent any with it. Even the picture isnt clear...

A booster usually causes problems when installed that close to transmitters. Yet, if the picture is not clear, it can't be digital. Digital transmission is either a perfect picture, no picture at all, or a picture that blinks on/off with blocky pixelization.

You should connect the antenna directly to the TV without a preamp.

 

[MartyMcFly]

Well the picture is clear. Its just on NBC and FOX it seems unstable. It will bounce between 75-70 and it seems when it hits 70 it blocks up and drops the signal. When you say having the booster that close to the transmitter what do you mean? From the really crappy picture that came with the booster it seems like thats how it was supposed to go. Tho I may be wrong.
Do you mean the preamp and the Amp part are supposed to go down by the TV rather than up by the antennae? I havent tried it like that.
I do seem to be getting 100% on 1 or 2 other channels now. So i think it is boosting the signals somewhat. But from what I have read in some other threads I may be overloading the 2 channels I am trying to help. Maybe thats the case...

 

[bhelms]

Agreed that you may have a problem with TOO MUCH signal strength on the two stations that are breaking-up for you, tho' you didn't mention how close those stations are to you. This is usually a result of the strong incident signal overloading the input of the preamp, or the net signal to the TV's tuner being too strong. It can also be a mix of strong adjacent channels overloading the weaker channels you're trying to receive. You might also have a multipath problem that can result in intermittent complete loss of the digital image. Even if the signal is still strong, the time delay between multiple paths of the identical signal can't be adequately resolved in the tuner. Sometimes rotating the antenna slightly can help with multipath problems.

If you have any analog signals in your mix, you can use them to advantage to help troubleshoot the system as the displayed PQ will vary continuously with the measures you take. But it's tough with the "all of nothing" digital signals.

I agree that you really shouldn't need any preamp at all for your close stations. Maybe a separate antenna with no booster pointed in that direction would work best for them, then you could use some other system for the distant channels that are breaking-up. You might even get away with just an inside antenna for the close stations. A dual antenna system can be combined with a "jointenna" device that only takes the intended signals from each antenna reducing the possibility of interference from multiple receiving devices.

I'm not familiar with the booster you have. The gain is only one important factor in the performance equation. You should also have a very low noise figure (like less than 3dB) and that's not always the case with high-gain models. Also, where you have a mix of both close and distant stations you probably need one with a high overload margin, like the Winegard HCP-269. It only has a moderate gain (~12dB, IIRC) but the highest overload factor of the consumer-grade models, and a really good noise figure as well.

I'm not sure about your booster type, but in most cases the preamp part is contained strictly in the housing that's mounted at the antenna. The other "half" is just the power supply. (A notable exception is some of the Blonder-Tongue units that also have some of the active RF circuitry in the inside unit.) You don't want to mount any power supply outside. There's generally no advantage to mounting it any closer to the outside unit if your total cable run is 100' or less.

Hope some of this helps...

 

[MartyMcFly]

Just so it helps...my address is
53 N. Clinton Ave. Clintonville WI 54929.
And I am trying to get my Green Bay Local stations. Which are about 40-42 miles east of me.

Also is there a way to go back and look at all the posts I have made on my account. Cause I listed in 1 post about 1 month ago exactly what type of antennae I have. I have since thrown out the box...

 

[bhelms]

I you haven't done so already, plug your information in at www.antennaweb.org to get a bunch of information on what you can expect to receive, from where, and what antenna type/size it will take. You can also discern the analog channels from the digitals (but no mention of ones b'casting in HD). Of course every situation is independent and hard to predict. Obstructions like buildings, hills, and trees are the hardest to manage.

From what you mentioned in your latest reply it sounds like the situation I described where you have strong local channels mixed with some distants. Not sure what channels they are on but 40 miles is near the limit for reliable UHF unless you're high or in very flat terrain with few obstructions. I'm betting your problem is indeed multipath. Try tweaking the direction you're pointed in a bit to see of that helps. If you have a sizeable obstruction off-center to the straight line to the station, that's a good source for multipath, but you might be able to use that to your advantage, i.e., the reflected signal might be stronger or more reliable than the direct one.

Put your own user name into the "Search Forums" box and hit enter. IIRC, that will return every thread in which you have appeared. Maybe you can remember it by its title?

 

[Tower Guy]

Just so it helps...my address is
53 N. Clinton Ave. Clintonville WI 54929.
And I am trying to get my Green Bay Local stations. Which are about 40-42 miles east of me.

Also is there a way to go back and look at all the posts I have made on my account. Cause I listed in 1 post about 1 month ago exactly what type of antennae I have. I have since thrown out the box...

To see all your posts, click on your name. A drop down box appears; click "see all posts by MartyMcFly".

You have a Radio Shack VU-90XR. There are no TV stations near you that would overload the preamp. The power supply for the preamp can be anywhere without changing the performance of the system. The preamp should be as close to the antenna as possible; 3' is fine.

You might be able to get the other Green Bay stations with a much larger antenna, or relocate the existing antenna to a higher mast.