I had gotten a great recommendation for a cell phone booster from you guys with the We-boost. Now I am looking to make my tv reception better. I had bought a RCA 100 mile antenna, and I get 16 channels, but at times it digitalizes, and I would like some sort of amplifier, or booster to help improve them. Being many of you either live, or own a cabin out away from cities, I figured someone would have a good recommendation for one.
An amplifier does not help at all when it comes to an antenna receiving a signal like most folks think. It sits behind the antenna. It only adds power, but it adds that power to both signal and in-band noise and also introduces noise itself into the system.
So, what good are they?
Once an antenna receives a signal it has to send it down a wire (typically RG6 cable for OTH TV) down to your TV set. Power is lost as the signal travels down the wire. The amount of loss is related to the length of the cable. You need sufficient power at your receiver (TV) to decode the signal, but you also need sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). More power over "sufficient" does nothing. Since an amp also adds noise, if your power level is sufficient without it, it adds noise and can degrade your TVs ability to decode the signal. Also, each connector in the signal path (and splitters are worse), also causes signal loss.
The first thing I'd look at is your cable. If you have old wiring it may be RG-59. This has about -6 db of loss for each 100' of cable. Now a days, the typical cable is RG-6 which has -5db of loss for each 100 feet of cable. It is heavier and more expensive but you can by RG-11 cable it has -3db of loss over 100'. By using lower loss cable, you are retaining more reception power without increasing noise as with an amp.
You also mention a 100 mile antenna. That may actually reduce the number of channels you can receive. Antenna gain has to come from somewhere. There is no free lunch. So, high gain antennas are directional. Gain from the back side of the antenna is moved to the front side (pointing direction) by the design of the antenna. Without getting into the complexity of antenna designs or patterns, in general, the higher gain an antenna, the narrower the beam-width.
You can think of the beam-width of an antenna like a "V" where the open end of the "V" is where the antenna is pointed. A high gain antenna has a tall narrow "V". A lower gain antenna has a shorter but wider "V". So, if you get a high gain antenna, unless you put it on a rotor, it will point in one direction. If it has a narrow beam-width, you may get stations it is pointed at that are further away, but you may lose stations that are closer but off at an angle from the direction it is pointed. A rotor lets you re-point the antenna by turning a dial (today it is probably pushing a button).
My point is that it is not as simple as a "booster amp". That may or may not do you any good depending on your situation. The place to start is to figure out where the stations you want to receive are located with respect to you. This site can be helpful for that:
https://www.antennasdirect.com/transmitter-locator.html The next step is to prioritize them if they are in significantly different directions. Next decide if you can use a low gain antenna or if you need a high gain antenna to get the stations you want. Decide if you will need a rotor with a high gain antenna so you can repoint it to get more stations. Next, figure out how high the antenna will be. Higher can sometimes avoid obstacles that may attenuate the signal before it reaches your antenna, but it means more coax cable which causes more loss. If you end up needing a lot of coax, consider RG-11 first. The last step, if RG-11 won't do the trick might be to buy an amp.
When looking at antennas forget the "Mile Range". This is just a relative thing and many things affect the actual distance. Look at the antenna pattern to see the beam-width and antenna gain spec. When choosing an amp, look as the noise figure. You will want a Low Noise Amp (LNA) but some are lower than others.
Thanks,
Jack
