searay268

1inxs

searay, Welcome to the DTVUSA Forum. Connect the HDTV like it has always been connected. Do a channel scan on the digital tuner in the setup function in your HDTV. You should get results. Post back and let us know what that does for you.

Aaron62

Do you think you received the channels again after hooking up the converter box because of the auto channel scan? You may not need a booster at all, but then again I might not be understanding you correctly. The booster may be too much for your antenna system. Have you done a TV Fool broadcast tower distance check yet? Just for giggles, I entered Turpin Hills, OH which is 25-50 miles East of Cincinnati, and TVFool showed that digital broadcast towers were only 8 miles away. Heck, you could use a cheap indoor antenna to receive signals at that distance.

cowboyup4christ

place a pre amp on the antenna the channel MAster 7777 is a good one low noise.
Signal distribution amps have very high noise levels and can overload tuners with the noise. the lower noise pre amp will only keep the signal from dropping it will not try to boost it like a distribution amp.

searay268

Thanks for the feedback. I did do an autoscan (actually first thing I did) and it did not help.

We just got back from Maysville and they had a Radio Shack there. I talked to the guy and I bought one of their High-Gain Signal amplifiers which mounts on the antenna mast. He swore to me with tears in his eyes that if it does not work, I can bring it back.

Cowboy, if it does not work, I'll take a look at what you suggested. By the way, what exactly is a pre amp as opposed to an amplifier?

Again, thanks.

1inxs

A preamp is located at or nearest the antenna and has a low level output. The amplifier is what you are calling a booster. It is the distribution splitter/amplifier.

Here is the next test I would try to isolate the problem. I would set up the CECB without the booster and write down the signal strength. Then add the booster back into the mix and read the signal strength. We need to determine if your system is being over driven or under driven. I pretty confident we will pinpoint the problem.

searay268

Okay, I just tried to hook the amplifier I bought from Radio Shack yesterday. Remember, if I hook directly onto the antenna feed in the wiring closet, I could get the main channels we watch but we could not get the signal through the rest of the house.

It did not seem to affect 9.1 (the ABC channel) but 12.1 (CBS) was barely coming in where without the amplifier directly on the antenna feed I could get both so I have removed it. By the way, it is a model 150-2507 if anyone cares. I'll be taking it back.

1inxs, since I removed the amp, I went ahead and got the numbers you wanted. I assume a CECB is the converter box itself so here are the strength numbers of the stations we watch the most hooked directly to the antenna feed:

5.1 - 67
9.1 - 34
12.1 - 70
19.1 - 58

I then hooked the old amplifier up that we've been using to the antenna feed and then the converter directly to the amplifier:

5.1 - 52
9.1 - no signal
12.1 - no signal
19.1 - 58

It's pretty obvious the old amplifier is no help with the DTV signals overall; however, I do appear to need it to feed the lines that branch out from the closet to the rest of the house because without it, no channels get through to the televisions in the house.

cowboyup4christ

ok the distribution amp is the problem if you use a pre map at the antenna channel master titan 7777 recommend has lowest noise levels, this should give you what you need to make the runs. distribution amps must be between the converter and the tv they will not work between the antenna and the converter box. again to much noise. Radio shack pre amps which is what you have are very noisy and will not give as goode results as the channel master.

1inxs

You should have a preamp installed at or near the antenna if the coaxial cable run is longer than 100 feet. The Radio Shack 150-2507 would work if your run was over 100 feet. In your closet to send the signal out to the other rooms, you would need an amplified splitter. See my link for an example.
CyberEstore | 8dB RF Amplifier And 4-Way Splitter - 1 Input /4 Output Splitter | C-0314

EDIT: Sorry cowboyup4christ, While my slow fingers were typing you were posting. I'll bow out of this thread as it looks like you got it covered.

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.