HVR-1600 Antenna

[235301]

I have a Radio Shack non-amplified antenna for HD. It works great with my HDTV, I can get all the local channels w/o signal problems(it helps that I live only 2 mi from most of the towers). However, when used with the HVR-1600 that same antenna doesn't give me great signal strength on some of the channels. Would it help to go to an amplified antenna?

[flyswatta]

I could be wrong on this, but I believe all that an amplified antenna does is increase the signal from the antenna to your device. It doesn't actually give you better reception it just increases the signal strength (and the noise) on the coax. From what I've read, you only really need it if you have over 50' or so of coax.

[JimF]

The amplifier should be located at the antenna, so that the amplifier gain will overcome the cable loss. If you place it near the receiver, it amplifies both signal and noise, and there is no improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio, which is what is really important. And actually, it could make reception worse, because the amplifier adds its own noise. The added noise is referred to as the "noise figure", and should be as low as possible, less than 4 dB usually. That is not to be confused with the gain of the amplifier, which is typically around 15 to 20 dB.

The above more properly refers to the "preamplifier", but you can also use a splitter amplifier inside if you have several taps. That mainly overcomes splitter loss. You need to start with a good signal coming down from the antenna though, or a splitter amplifier will not do much good.