What are some good ways to boost the power of my Silver Sensor antenna?
We get a number of channels that come in very easily such as PBS, CBC, E!, and CTV. With some fiddling I can get ABC, and CBS (and some other local stations that I never watch)
What I would like to do is get ABC and CBS in more easily and possibly get FOX, NBC, CityTV, and Global to come in. These channels are all close but fails to get a solid lock to make the channel watchable.
My wife doesn't want a big external antenna nor something that looks ugly sitting on top of the entertainment unit, so is there anything I can do to help me get better signal?
(below picture is not of my setup :) but is the same antenna I use)
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M$3 Answers
Noise in the system at any point will reduce your reception. A few first easy steps is to make sure every connection is tight. Then try replacing the cables with higher end cables. HDMI or other digital cables don't matter, but COAX can be susceptible to bad cable noise.
Definitely try reorienting the antenna in any way you can. Moving it around the room can also make a difference. Radio waves bounce around the walls and can do funny things.
Your RCA amplifier is not designed for the digital signals. You may want to swap it out for one designed to work at the proper frequencies. For example a ZENITH ZEN-AA1 HD ANTENNA AMPLIFIER.
Remember that you get what you pay for. A more expensive cable, amplifier, antenna will produce a stronger signal (generally). If signal strength is truly important you should look at obtaining a more expensive antenna and amplifier.
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M$This website that tells you the most optimal antenna, depending on the area you live in, might recommend you a small outdoor one to.
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx
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M$
Oh, didn't know you were in Ontario. Well besides that, the only other things I can think of would be to put more metal in the air (tin foil or wires on the antenna) but that would probably not look so great over your entertainment system.
TV reception is a fickle thing, sometimes, no matter what you do, you can't improve it. Hope you can get the channels you want to watch.
http://www.antennaweb.org/ looks like it would be a very helpful/good resource, but it only is available state site, I'm in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. I have tried the book/tilt idea here, and it has helped sometimes in bad weather when the waves start to get bounced around.
That is the other thing, too. You need to make sure that your antenna is dead-on pointed in the direction of the station you're looking to receive. With analog, you'd still see a picture, most likely, with the antenna pointed away from the transmitter. With DTV, you're likely to become a victim of the "digital cliff" if your antenna is not pointed in the direction of the tower.
I work for a television station, so most of this is based on troubleshooting with our engineers to get my DTV reception working.
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M$
RF is not all RF I'm afraid.
When you buy antennas for research or military applications they give a frequency span that they are designed to handle.
Amplifiers are the same. Different frequencies can be distorted due to the internal components of an amplifier. Currently at my work we are designing patch and spiral antennas for the 3 MHz to 3 GHz range which encompasses the television range.
A digital signal used for the new television metric is more distinct with less blurring or overlap that an analog signal possesses. A typical amplifier can end up clipping some of your signal as it tries to amplify a wider signal.
"Your RCA amplifier is not designed for the digital signals. You may want to swap it out for one designed to work at the proper frequencies. For example a ZENITH ZEN-AA1 HD ANTENNA AMPLIFIER."
Not true. According to our transmitter engineer, RF is RF. A DTV signal is still RF. The only time this will be false is if the amp is tuned for VHF and the station he's trying to receive is UHF.
It's the same reason why an old "bow tie" antenna can receive UHF DTV signals just as good as the "HDTV" antennas can. (Provided you're in an area with sufficient signal, like our studio building, as we were when we tried it.)