[Corday]

Anybody have any first hand experience with the Channel Master CM-3000HD SMARTenna Omnidirectional Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna? I'm too old to keep going on the roof when my outdoor rotating antenna is having a problem. I'm thinking of trying it inside and if it works, finding an eave location and running through my whole house system to 3-4 sets.

 

[bruiser]

Channel Master and Winegard are the two best TV antenna manufacturers.

How far from the stations are you?

If you're going to split the signal between three or four sets, you're going to need an amplifier to keep a decent signal.

 

[Corday]

20 miles from the antenna farm where stations jointly transmit from. The feature that was stressed at the Vegas Expo was that it didn't need amplification. 35 mile range which of course means perfect conditions.

 

[yustr]

Remember the inverse square law.

You're fortunate that your stations broadcast from a single location. In my case, I needed a rotating antenna to get various stations spread to all points of the compass; tough to do in the attic. :grin:

 

[bruiser]

They're talking about one antenna connected to one TV. When a signal is split, even in two parts, there is a signal loss. There is a loss when the signal splitter is inserted, known as insertion loss, as well, so that's three losses of signal. You may, or may not, get a satisfactory signal after splitting it three or four ways. To be on the safe side, I think I'd move up to the next most "powerful" antenna. dB gain is what you're looking for. The more gain, the better. Of course, in some situations, a high gain antenna can deliver a signal that's to strong, resulting in signal overload, which is just as bad as having a weak signal.

 

[Corday]

bruiser, too strong a signal is what I found to be what's wrong with amplification. I'll take your advice since even my original indoor application idea would split the signal between a set with a digital tuner and a converter for an analog VCR/DVD player recorder (yes it does copy VHS tapes onto discs and vice versa).

 

[bruiser]

If the signal, after being split, is to weak, a distribution amplifier would be needed. Some have adjustable gain, so you can tweak them. In the case of a to strong signal, there is a device for that as well, but due to a brain fart, can't recall the name of it.