![]() Nevertheless your particular situation may be difficult for antenna reception. Thus, its antenna gain means it probably won’t need extra amplifier gain to boost the received signal.īut that’s just speaking about the TV antenna itself. ![]() Such TV antennas have an antenna gain that’s sufficient for receiving most, if not all the stations within their range, and without resorting to electrical amplification of the signal.Īn antenna’s gain measures how well the TV antenna converts radio waves arriving from a certain direction into electrical power. Have you noticed that many long-range directional TV antennas-like the RCA ANT751R-don’t come with a preamplifier? When Do You Need a TV antenna Amplifier?įirst, let’s talk about when you won’t need an amplifier. Normally you’d use either one of these, although there are situations where you might consider using both, which I describe further below. Unlike a preamplifier you attach to an antenna outside, a distribution amplifier is usually located indoors (e.g., directly after the coaxial cable enters the house and before or after the splitter) A distribution amplifier boosts the signal in conjunction with a splitter device that you install in order to split the signal among multiple televisions.A preamplifier attaches directly to the mast or TV antenna itself, and boosts the signal immediately received by the antenna.A TV signal booster is actually an amplifier. ![]() What makes terms relating to antenna amplification confusing is that people often use different words when they mean the same thing.įor example, people talk about boosting their reception, so they call it a TV antenna booster, or an aerial booster. – below I give some loss of the signal scenarios along with estimated loss numbers. This means it can add up to 22 dB of extra gain – for UHF signals – to offset any losses (“signal attenuation”) along the line caused by a lengthy cable, distant transmission towers, etc. Since you can use this thing to power both a VHF and UHF antenna at the same time, it offers two different (max) gain figures for these frequencies: 16 dB for VHF and 22 dB for UHF. (Elsewhere on this site I’ve also talked about “antenna gain (dB)” but that’s a different kind of gain - it’s basically the passive, receptive power of the TV antenna itself based on its own design.)Ī good preamplifier that I always recommend to people is the RCA TVPRAMP1Z (shown below). The power it’s adding to the signal is referred to as amplifier gain, which is measured in decibels (dB). You normally install an amplifier by attaching it somewhere along the line from your antenna to your TV, and then plugging the amplifier in to an AC power outlet. They strengthen your already-received signals, but they won’t help you get broadcasts you otherwise wouldn’t receive at all (say, from another country or from an alien galaxy). ![]() Notice I said, “travelling down your antenna or along the coaxial cable.” That’s key to understanding amplifiers.
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