#HDTV ANTENNA BOOSTER TV#
#HDTV ANTENNA BOOSTER FREE#

So I pull out the instruction sheet and in the specs section it states '5-42 mHz 7db insertion loss'. Close to the notch that the box describes, but still above it. Our PBS station broadcasts on digital 13.1, which is RF 4 (low VHF) which is about 68 mHz. The box says '5-42/54-100 mHz compatible. However, I also observed that it greatly denigrates PBS and FM radio. I put it on and saw significant improvement in the major networks. I didn't want to ditch the antenna I had just bought, so I checked Best Buy (so I could pick it up today) and they sell an 'in line cable amplifier'. I had a friend recommend an amplified antenna. The apps are great and I was getting good but not great reception of local channels.

#HDTV ANTENNA BOOSTER TV#

Whenever someone comes with solid technical facts, I want to be first in the line to learn.Ĭlick to expand.So I recently bought a Roku TV and loved it so much that we finally cut the cord. Your coat hanger yes, really, a coat hanger piece of wire with zero engineering can perform as well or better in who-knows-what conditions compared to the expensive super antenna on the market trend ( now you can see antennas are sold by rating of reception miles ) and everyone knows about such behavior fact but nobody has a clue how it happens Specifications of digital TV tuners manufacturers are unobtanium no way to find a RX impedance-to-frequency plot, all left to art more than engineering. Impedance considerations in such huge wide bands are just technical diarrhea. Just like praying to get a signal.Īntenna manufacturers make it even worse by promising their garbage products are better than the other garbage. Time of day and temperature and nobody-knows-what-else contribute with even more unpredictable reception. Moving an antenna decimetres away makes a lot of difference with no way to identify why/how/where/when. No matter the opinion and good knowledge from experts. I do not face the transmitters.Īlong decades of playing with antennas, the only certain thing is television reception is unpredictable. I can't expect good reception because my window is at the inside corner of a building. Performance is similar to the store-bought antenna. With old-fashioned analog transmission you could usually see a show even if you had to tolerate a snowy picture.įor an antenna I tried using a length of wire.

#HDTV ANTENNA BOOSTER FREE#

The receiver needs to pick up a broadcast virtually free of noise, otherwise it gives us a blank screen. That seems to be the nature of digital transmission. Often merely a few inches makes the difference between receiving a channel clearly and ' no signal detected'. When a favorite channel doesn't come in then I hold up the antenna while moving around the room. Sometimes channels are detectable which I can't pick up most days.Ī friend gave me a store-bought tv antenna. It's not necessarily when a storm is near. Atmospheric conditions have a lot to do with it. There are some channels which usually come in fine but then a day come along when my tv fails to pick up certain ones. That seems reasonable to me, what say you? Then I could use a booster on just the UHF antenna and let the VHF one play without any amplification. If there is some reason that all amps are made that way, my second thought is to perhaps get a separate VHF antenna and point it at the PBS tower and combine both signals. First, can I find an in-line amp with a flat response? This is called a 'Cable amp', is the filtration at the bottom deliberate to prevent some kind of cable TV interference? If I can find one that boosts all of the frequencies I suspect I'll be all set. So now I am having two trains of thought for my next move. That would certainly be in line with the results I was observing before I read any of that. This leads me to believe that it's not a consistent 4db but probably linear, likely boosting more as it moves up in frequency. It then said, '54-100 MHz UP TO 4db gain' (emphasis mine). I wouldn't call a signal loss a fair description of a useable signal. Well, that to me makes the front of the box inaccurate. So I pull out the instruction sheet and in the specs section it states '5-42 MHz 7db insertion loss'. Our PBS station broadcasts on digital 13.1, which is RF 4 (low VHF) which is about 68 MHz. The box says '5-42/54-100 MHz compatible. I didn't want to ditch the antenna I had just bought, so I checked Best Buy (so I could pick it up today) and they sell an 'inline cable amplifier'. So I recently bought a Roku TV and loved it so much that we finally cut the cord.

Hdtv antenna booster