Reddit reviews Channel Master Ultra Mini 4 TV Antenna Amplifier, TV Antenna Signal Booster with 4 Outputs for Connecting Antenna or Cable TV to Multiple Televisions (CM-3414),White

I would not get a contractor for this, as you don't need to put it in your roof. I put one in my attic and I love it. Here's what I got:

• antenna - my friends love theirs too
  
• stand - works like a charm
  
• booster
  
• ampifier
  
  The signal booster needs to be as close to the antenna as possible, so it is boosting the strongest signal. It took me an afternoon to install it all and run a cable down from my attic to basement. I already had the amp/splitter in basement, so that's why I ran everything there.
  
  My wife didn't want to get rid of cable, but she hasn't talked about getting it back and it's been almost a year. PM me if you have any questions.

>So it was back to the future with over-the-air TV (OTA) using an antenna or what we Boomers used to call an aerial

I'm not that old man. I was born in 83, and I call it an aerial, (because it operates in the sky, and you put it up in the sky on a mast). That's just what it is.

>A few caveats: my unit purports to be good for more than one TV although AntennasDirect support told me reception takes a hit with that approach. Bear in mind, they want to sell more antennas. They also told me longer cable runs (don’t go more than 100 feet) affects reception adversely.

So use a distribution amplifier, and distribute it throughout your house. Watch 4 TV's on one aerial if you wish. Problem solved.

There is a way to do it, yes, but it will be a bit more complicated than your description. I had a similar situation in my house when I cut the cord. I put the antenna in the attic with a distribution amplifier similar to this. The in-wall coax is definitely ok to use with either antenna or cable service.

One output of the amplifier was connected to a TV in a room immediately below. The other output went to the original cable which dropped through the walls to the basement where the original cable signal had come in. Another distribution amplifier there distributed the signal to four other rooms with TV jacks. (Note that the line from the antenna became the input signal to the basement amplifier; it was originally connected to one of the outputs.)

If your signals are strong and/or you don't need to split the signal at the antenna, you may not need the first distribution amplifier at the antenna.

This works well for all the TVs, getting about 35 channels. We are about 20 miles from most of the TV transmitters.

Hope this helps!

I noticed some have advised replacing the DISH splitters with regular splitters. That may or may not be necessary; if it's an older dish system the splitters it used may be perfectly capable of splitting the signal from your antenna. On the other hand, if the dish had multiple LNB's on it then you probably will need to remove and replace all the Dish Network splitters. If you can post a good, clear picture of the splitter(s) we can probably tell you if they will need to be replaced.

However if you are in an area where all your received signals are a bit on the weak side then you may instead want to replace any splitters with an amplified splitter such as one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001PI09SE?keywords=channel%20master%20splitter&qid=1449601660&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Note they come in 2, 4, and 8 port models so you can match the number of outputs to the number of TV's you are feeding. The idea is to eliminate the loss normally associated with splitting the signal. On the other hand, if all the signals you want to receive are very strong, then adding one of these would be overkill and you can just get by with a passive splitter. If you post a link to your TVFool report we can give you better advice on this.

Just adding. A box of RG6 cable is cheap so you may also want something like a distribution amplifier (https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B001PI09SE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). Otherwise you may experience to much loss when connecting multiple equipment (tv, pvr, pc). For ex., I have three tv's and a mythbox connected to the one antenna.

Buy an antenna with nothing less than ~12db gain. Unless you living under their transmission tower ie.,

Late Edit: I see a link to tvfool below, it's a great resource (site survey).

looking at your rabbitears it seems that the stations that are south of the home are weak... but as an added bonus the broadcast towers that are south of you are pointing their signal south and away from you... so thats good if you don't want to be infiltrated by evil tv waves... but

one thing you have going for you is even your strongest signal from the northeast is weak its about 35db and most tvs will max out at about 90db but really you give yourself another 10db or so of buffer because these signal levels are approximate they could be slightly higher or lower.

so a real large and strong antenna will give you about 12-16db of boost... so you have your 35 + 15 = 50db ...

so that means you can use a strong preamp on that antenna like a ChannelMaster 7777 30db gain amp... the brand new ones are 26db i think not sure if you're gonna get a older one someplace.

so that will get you 80db of power maybe on your strongest signal maybe... and bring the other signals up to the 70's ... maybe... which is pretty good...

but power and signal quality are different.. you have to have signal for it to be amped and if the signal is flaky then you are amping flaky signal... but if the signal is flaky because it drops weak a bit then maybe a preamp right at the antenna will help a lot.

I am 60+ miles out in a few directions.... I picked 2 of those directions and pointed the very large full size 9 foot long and wide antennas at these broadcast towers.......... I then added CM7777 amps to each antenna... I combine them with a special coax splitter and then I run that cable to a distribution amp that has 8 ports to feed the rooms.. the distribution amp bumps the signal 4 more db .. So I have my 12db antenna + 30db of amp + 4db of distribution amp... I only have one splitter to combine the two antennas...

My strongest signal is 36db my weakest signal that i get really well is 7db .. I do at times get signals rated below 0 depending on weather conditions... normally rain makes things better because the signals that would bounce out into space bounce back off the clouds and to the ground... which is weird... also when a storm is behind a distant station it bounces that signal back towards me.... but those stations are not dependable only the ones about 7db and higher I can count on to be available all day every day.

loose wire crimps or improperly made crimps on wires are a big factor... they have to be good. that white plastic center insulator should come into the connector until its flush on the bottom when you look inside the connector.. it shouldn't be recessed.. it should be on the inside floor of the connector with the center copper wire poking all the way out of the connector about 1/4 inch. and they have to be tight and not spin on the wire or be loose.

then ummmmm splitters... splitters suck all the life out of your system so you have to use a distribution amp when you have low level signals. a regular 2 port out splitter will steal 50% of your signal.. the more ports the more they steal -3.5 to -11db .. not good so you run your antenna directly to the distribution amp and then you feed each room off the distribution amp.

If you need to (you don't) use a combiner / splitter like i am to combine 2 antennas you only use special power passing splitter to let the dc power for the amps to get through.

....................

so ... big antenna (you have no hopes of fox without a big antenna outside on the roof) pointed southeast at 125deg .. big amp... distribution amp... check your cable connectors.. don't use extra splitters

Big antenna like this

https://www.amazon.com/RCA-Universal-Outdoor-Element-ANT3036Z/dp/B00009W3BW

PreAmp

https://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master-CM-7777-Antenna-Preamplifier/dp/B000GGKOG8/

Distribution Amp

https://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master-Distribution-Amplifier-Antenna/dp/B001PI09SE/

but like I said your signal is bad and in some cases its pointed away from you.

good luck :o)

edit as for you... you need the same (the strongest you can get) and maybe a small tower

It is a power transformer, but sends power via coax instead of what you are accustomed. https://www.fws.co/images/product/medium/6567.jpg
It is used with cable amplifiers, typically if 5 or more TVs are in a home.
plugs into the top left port on this https://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master-Distribution-Amplifier-Antenna/dp/B001PI09SE amp.

Get a powered amplifier, it will help strengthen the signal into it.

Also keep in mind, every split you will loose about 50% signal. A powered splitter would be a great investment IMO.

I have mine split into 4 HD Homerun Extends with no lose of signal using a ChannelMaster Splitter.

Yep, you'll pick up the split. That's where getting the antenna up as high as you can and doing everything you can to minimize signal attenuation after it hits your antenna comes into play, because you're not receiving either broadcast at full strength with a directional or yagi antenna at that point.

I actually came up with a solution at my grandpa's house (one of my earlier antenna installs) because I was running into so much signal loss in his older home with the way the attic was finished off, with chicken wire embedded in the old plaster: an antenna array. I used two antennas, one pointed north and one pointed west, that run into a splitter/combiner. THAT did the trick, after a year of dicking around with different aerials and positions in the attic following the initial digital broadcast transition. Trick was that feedlines to the splitter/combiner have to be EXACTLY the same length so there's no interference. I found out later on when I got my amateur radio license that this is something done commonly with ham radio setups, but you don't see it often with TV antennas. Since then, I've borrowed from my ham radio knowledge pretty heavily for OTA TV antenna installs and it's been very valuable.

Now, if you're ever looking to serve more than those two TVs, you'll need this. This is a little lower end model, but does the job just fine for 90% of people. No need to go with an Arris just for OTA TV. Love 'em and will absolutely use 'em when they're left behind by the cable company, but they're not necessary in most cases.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone.

I've since procured one of these (an Onn ONA16AV004 Digital Signal Amplifier):https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076DL27Y9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And one of these (a Channel Master CM3414 4-Port Distribution Amplifier) to replace my existing passive splitter:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001PI09SE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So, I learned there's a difference in VHF and UHF channels and the antennas one should get, and what used to be VHF around here, no longer is. Most of all my channels (in the 76102 area code) are in the UHF range, with just about 2 that remain VHF...and both of those are shown to be difficult to receive in my area.

I also ensured my antenna is facing the best direction, using my iPhone's compass to more accurately match what degrees the various websites say it should be facing.

And with the Signal Amplifier, I now get all the channels when I'm in the attic, with the VHF channels having about a 30% signal strength. The rest are about 50% - 75%.

However, when I test it out at the end of the line-drop before the splitter (which is in the basement, about 20-25 feet below), I lose all the VHF channels. The rest of the channel strength remain more-or-less the same (if they're degraded much, my TV isn't really showing me exactly how much. It pretty much just reads "bad/normal/good").

Now, with the Distribution Amplifier, I test at the end of those lines (basically, the living room and bedrooms) and signal loss is more substantial, and I lose more channels that were originally in that 50% range when in the attic. But at least I get a lot more channels than I did before...

Any suggestions of what else I could try (short of going up to the roof)?

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To answer questions:I live in an ~100 year old house, so the walls are thick, but the gable where I placed the antenna in the attic is relatively thin (compared to the rest of the house). It just has to receive signal through douglas fur wood and asbestos tiles. The antenna is probably about 30' off the ground.

Most of coax is ran near to other power lines, and I'm considering adjusting those to ensure they aren't overlapping or touching. One of them is ran over fluorescent lights.

Here are the rabbit ear results:https://www.rabbitears.info/searchmap.php?request=result&study_id=22534

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Thanks so much!

Thank you for the response! It caused me to go back and confirm that yes, it is pre-amped with a built-in. I tend to forget that.
I agree. I read up on this today and it seems my splitting situation is drastically reducing the signal downline. To address this, I purchased this today: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B001PI09SE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I'm thinking I will ditch the 2 splitters I showed you and install this off the power supply to the pre-amplifier. I will then split this signal 3 ways (leaving one port unused) to our 3 TVs we are primarily using.
This will basically leave me with the following setup: Signal --> Pre-Amplifier --> Distribution Amplifier --> 3 TVs

This this is the correct approach? Somebody else advised I setup 2 antennas on the roof, with one dedicated to VHF-Hi. I would rather not have to deal with obtaining and setting up an appropriately sized ladder again since it was a pain in the ass getting it 25ft up there in the first place.

U want to use a pre amp right out of the antenna then in that closet u want to use an amplified splitter

Winegard LNA-200 Boost XT HDTV Preamplifier, TV Antenna Amplifier Signal Booster, HD Digital VHF UHF Amplifier https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DQN3R9O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_aIOUCb8Y0P3Z7

Channel Master CM3414 4-Port Distribution Amplifier for Cable and Antenna Signal https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001PI09SE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_5IOUCbA1M57E5

> I just didn't want those crazy massive silver looking alien and antennas.

Well those silver alien antennas. Are the NORMAL average TV antenna that has been around for decades. Proven tech, and it works.

The newer flat antennas are new designs, and they have their time and place. In a metro environment where the TV signals are practically baking you.

At 50 miles, even amp'd you are pushing your limits.

The first rule of RF, anything RF. If you want it pretty, forget it!

> So my set up is a bit more complex and im still not done. I don't have a clue on how to ground it or anything or what to put where.

http://otadtv.com/installation/index.html#ground

>And I need my antenna to run to every coax cable in the house.

Do you have home runs to each antenna from some place?

You need something like:
https://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master-Distribution-Amplifier-Antenna/dp/B001PI09SE/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1505307172&sr=1-3&keywords=distribution+amp

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Amplifier-Internet-Signal-Booster/dp/B001EKCGT8/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1505307172&sr=1-5&keywords=distribution+amp

The thing is that you have an ACTIVE ANTENNA which needs power.

Antenna ---- cable--- lighting arrestor --- ground block --- power inserter for amp --- dist amp --- TV's


>Im not sure how u did everything in under an hour

Simple.. EXISTING DBS wiring was reused. Unbox antenna, snap elements into place, go to roof, loosen bolts on dish, pull up, throw off roof. Put in 6ft extension pipe in J mount, drill hole through J mount and pole, tighten. Put antenna on pole, aim, tighten, connect cable. Do scan on TV..Check! Tighten everything up good and tight. Tidy up cables with zip ties.. DONE! 55 channels, gross. That's everything of value and the cruft, minus a few LP/CD stations that are very low power and outside the beamwidth, plus one semi distant sort of next market/same market.

The thing is I've been doing RF work of some sort for DECADES. Antennas, cable, etc. is MY LIFE.

Post pictures of all the labeling. Use imgur.com and post a link.

Could be the power for something like this antenna amp.

Circling back around to this. Work work work.... Anyway. I'm looking at the following:

Channel Master CM-3020 Long Range VHF, UHF, FM and HDTV Antenna

CMSTCM7777 - CHANNEL MASTER CM-7777 Titan 2 Preamp (High Gain)

Channel Master CM3414 4-Port Distribution Amplifier for Cable and Antenna Signal

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Should i get the below LTE Filter? Any other thoughts or suggestions?

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Channel Master LTE Filter Improves TV Antenna Signals