searay268

Thanks for all the help. You guys are great.

I want to make sure everyone (including myself) understands what I have to make sure I get the right stuff since it sounds like I'll have to order it (I guess the Radio Shack stuff isn't that good) and I don't want to deal with trying to return it.

All wiring is RG-6.

I have a single run from the antenna into a wire closet. This run is probably around 40 feet (could be as much as 50). This antenna is a new (few weeks old) Radio Shack antenna. It's about the biggest one they had (think something like a VU-190).

The wiring closet branches off to 8 different locations; however, only 4 are really in use so I don't have to get them all at the moment.

What I had originally going on was the antenna feed went into a power strip (surge protector) then into the amplifier which then went into a four way splitter. With this setup, I can get some DTV channels such as 5.1, 5.2 and 19.1. There are some others but these are the main ones I'm interested in. The other channels I want and cannot get with this setup is 9.1, 9.2, 12.1 and 12.2.

Remove the amplifier, and the signals are not strong enough to reach the televisions in the house; however, with the converter box in the wiring closet as a test, I can get the 9 and 12 channels along with the other channels.

Now after the long winded statement above, do I simply need the Channel Master 7777 pre-amp or do I also need an amplified splitter?

Out of curiosity, the Radio Shack gadget I bought says it's a "High-Gain Signal Amplifier" although it does mount on the antenna mast with a power supply in the house. Is this considered a pre-amp? I know you guys know a lot more about this stuff than I do (I know nothing about it), I'm just concerned if I buy something similar I'll get the same result as the Radio Shack device.

I just looked online at the Channel Master and it appears to have separate inputs for VHF and UHF. The antenna I have has only a single hookup (matching tranformer going from 300 OHM to 75 OHM connection). How would I hook this up?
Thanks a million.