# OTA Amplifier / Splitter Recommendations



## GeorgeIoak (Mar 8, 2007)

I've got a 2 story house with a roof top antenna. I'm getting pretty good signal strength and picture now but I want to expand the feeds into my house. Here's what I want to do:

1) Split the signal at the roof into 2 feeds to go to 2 ends of my house.
2) At 1 end after I come into the house I will split into 3 or 4 tuners
3) At the other end I will split inside the house to 6-7 tuners

I haven't installed it yet but I have a Channel Master 7777 amplifier but now I'm wondering if I should just get 2 inside amplifiers for the 2 ends of the house.

Anybody got any good recomendations??

While I'm at it. I also have cable coming into the house but I only have cable modem service. The signal is alittle weak coming into the back of the house and I'd also like to split the signal and feed a couple of QAM tuners. What amps and splitters would work with cable modems?

Thanks,
George


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

GeorgeIoak said:


> I haven't installed it yet but I have a Channel Master 7777 amplifier but now I'm wondering if I should just get 2 inside amplifiers for the 2 ends of the house.


What you need is unknown until you get there. You may have enough signal without an amplifier. I would recommend an adjustable gain amplifier rather than an amplifier and a adjustable attenuator.


> The signal is alittle weak coming into the back of the house and I'd also like to split the signal and feed a couple of QAM tuners. What amps and splitters would work with cable modems?


While I don't advocate theft of service, I will tell you that you need to make sure that any amplifier upstream of the cable modem must be "bi-directional". Again, unless you find that you need one, I'd avoid hanging an amp on the line.


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## GeorgeIoak (Mar 8, 2007)

it just seems to me that a total of 9-11 splits would bring any signal level down to near nothing. do you really think i could just split the signal and get a strong enough signal?


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

GeorgeIoak said:


> it just seems to me that a total of 9-11 splits would bring any signal level down to near nothing. do you really think i could just split the signal and get a strong enough signal?


I have my $25 RS antenna split seven ways involving over 250' of cable and I get a good picture and clear FM reception across the board.


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## GeorgeIoak (Mar 8, 2007)

Do you cascade splitters or do you have just 1 with 7 outputs? I ask because I have 2 rooms back to back and I'd rather come in, use a 2 output splitter to go into each room, and then in each room split again to get 3 and 4 outputs per room.

BTW, I'm doing all this because I've got Media PCs, TVs with tuners, and satellite boxes with OTA tuners.


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## Tower Guy (Jul 27, 2005)

GeorgeIoak said:


> I've got a 2 story house with a roof top antenna. I'm getting pretty good signal strength and picture now but I want to expand the feeds into my house. Here's what I want to do:
> 
> 1) Split the signal at the roof into 2 feeds to go to 2 ends of my house.
> 2) At 1 end after I come into the house I will split into 3 or 4 tuners
> ...


Your question cannot be answered without knowing your location. The 7777 is an excellent amplifier, but it is likely to overload in an urban setting.


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## GeorgeIoak (Mar 8, 2007)

I'm about 34 miles from the tower and in Sacramento we don't have any major hills or skyscrapers (but I'm not downtown anyways). All the tuners inside CE devices give different readings so I was thinking of getting a signal strength meter just to check the actual readings.

What other information did you want to know?

Thanks....


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

harsh said:


> What you need is unknown until you get there. You may have enough signal without an amplifier. I would recommend an adjustable gain amplifier rather than an amplifier and a adjustable attenuator.While I don't advocate theft of service, I will tell you that you need to make sure that any amplifier upstream of the cable modem must be "bi-directional". Again, unless you find that you need one, I'd avoid hanging an amp on the line.


I'm wish Harsh on this... If you can avoid using an amp, do it. You usually end up amplifying the good with the bad meaning you often amplify the signal AND the noise floor. I'd wait and see if it's needed.


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

harsh said:


> I have my $25 RS antenna split seven ways involving over 250' of cable and I get a good picture and clear FM reception across the board.


Do you have the U-75R? I just installed that on my home and I'm speechless.


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

GeorgeIoak said:


> I'm about 34 miles from the tower and in Sacramento we don't have any major hills or skyscrapers (but I'm not downtown anyways). All the tuners inside CE devices give different readings so I was thinking of getting a signal strength meter just to check the actual readings.
> 
> What other information did you want to know?
> 
> Thanks....


George, where about's in Sacramento do you live?

I just installed OTA in this area. I'm about 40+ miles from Walnut Grove. Maybe I can help.


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