RadioBanter - View Single Post - Want to replace old flat tv cable with better coax.

February 11th 06, 03:25 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave,alt.home.repair

On 10 Feb 2006 09:58:17 -0800, wrote:

In that particular area, you have to be very careful using an antenna
amplifier, especially if you are talking about a pre-amp mounted at the
antenna. Only a professional will know which amp will work in that
area. Some of the Sacramento signals are so strong on UHF that the
pre-amp can do more harm than good.

All I have is a RS amplified antenna in the attic -- the amplifer is
in the antenna -- and I love it because I'm in Baltimore and I can get
all the DC stations**. Rarely but sometimes, the signal is too strong
with Baltimore stations, so I have an A-B swtich that disconnects the
entire antenna if I want. Then I just use the one foot piece of co-ax
from the VCR to the A-B swtich, and even that little signal is more
than enough when I'm tuned to any station that overloads when using
the amplified antenna.

I suppose I could have gotten a variable reducer, or an amp with
variable amplification, and sought the best compromise value, but this
was simpler, and lets me use maximum for the DC stations. For
example, for a few months channel 9 was weak. Then it got to be fine
and about the same time channel 7 got weak. Now they're both fine,
but I want to keep amplification at its max for the hardware I bought.

**BTW, this is better than cable because cable doesn't have DC
stations. Often there is a sports game or even a non-sports show on
tv in Baltimore while DC is carrying the regular weekly show.

Also, once when I was watching Law and Order on two tv's at the same
time (fiddling with one of them) I saw that the last minute of the
show, the part after the last commercial, was shown on the DC channel,
but on the Baltimore channel, they put in another commercial. Very
distressing. The earlier part of the show they had been totally
synchronized. Channel 11 in Baltimore basically cheated everyone out
of that last minute or 30 seconds, which resolved some of the plot
issues. Now I watch channel 4 in DC more often.

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