do antenna amps help much

[feverish]

I live in San Jose, CA and I just put a 10' mast and a Radio Shack 120" antenna on our 1 story duplex. I can't go any higher, because there are powerlines right near my house (old neighborhood-- about 12' from roof- antenna is mounted on tripod 20' from lines).

Although I can get quite a few digital channels with relative clarity, I'd like to get channel 11, which is at 137 deg. The antenna is pointing opposite at 305 deg, where most of the other channels are.

Will an antenna amp allow me to get this channel? It is actually closer by around 30 mi. than the ones I have the antenna pointed at. If so, which amp should I get?

Thanks!

[Ratman]

An amp may help, but it's highly doubtful.

You can either put the antenna on a rotator or mount a second VHF antenna pointed properly and switch between the two antennae with an A/B switch.

[MrGibbage]

I think that antenna amps are useless for improving reception for a single tv. If you have a poor signal, ampilfying it only gives you a stronger, bad signal - think Rozanne Bar singing the National Anthem on a PA system. Amps, however, are great (required???) for distributing the signal to multiple tv's/receivers. Hope that makes sense.

[kevinw]

In my case using an amp helps quite a bit. First all the towers are roughly the in same area and I am about 40-45 miles from them. Without an amp I can not hold signal above 40% and I have a lot of pixleation and droputs. With the the amp and having the turned the antenna off a direct line and aiming it between the towers I get a 90% on all 7 Atlanta stations. Without aiming just properly, the amp was overloading some stations and not helping with others.
In your case a rotor may be more effective to point at the channel that is off the path.

[Jester]

But the reality is that an amp (as suggested by its name) can only amplify whatever signal is available. It cannot add any more picture data then what IT sees. This is especially true for a digital signal. It will just make the signal LOUDER per se.

The proper application for a signal amplifier is to make a good signal strong enough to carry through lots of cable. If your antenna or cable access point is very far away from your STB, or is split many times (each time you split it you will lose some signal -- that's what the 3.5db or 7db means on the splitter, the amount of signal LOST) an amp will help you.

I use a distribution amp right where my cable comes into the house. This box splits the signal 3 ways and boosts it to run to the rest of the house. This is only to insure that a good signal STAYS good, it does not improve it.

A good test for whether or not you need an amp would be to take a small tv to the source of your signal. If the picture looks good there but not where your main set is, add an amp. If the picture is not good at the source, buy a new antenna or complain to your cable company.

The reason that your signal strength looks better when you add an amp is that the signal is now louder. You are masking the real "signal strength" of the source.

[kevinw]

I believe that in using an amp for cable and for digital may be different. .. Re read my post. The amp does increase the "strength of a DIGITAL signal" other wise I would not be able to lock in a picture the way I do now with an amp vs with out an amp.
There is a difference between an antenna mounted amp and an inline amp used to strengthen an existing signal for multiple TV's.
The antenna mounted amp makes the antenna better at pulling in weak signal. The amp used inline just helps to keep the strength up for long cable feeds and to overcome loss from splits.