Distribution of OTA signals to several sets

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I live in a smaller city with three "local" HD/ digital signals, and
about 75 miles from a major metro area with a lot of digital stations.
My first HD set was directly connected to my antenna system, which
consists of a few end mounted UHF antennas pointing at the local
station towers, and a bigger, higher mounted UHF aimed at the Twin
Cities. These are combined with analog VHF signals, and then sent to
the various tv's in the home through splitters.

When the second HD/digital receiver went in, the dreaded splitter
problem raised its head. The 3 dB loss put some of the distant
stations' signals at the edge of reliable reception. The additon of a
cheap amp only distorted the analog signals and didn't help much of
anything for the marginal stations. The additon of a very expensive
amp didn't seem to do any better than el cheapo.

Is there a way to slightly, and without significant distortion,
amplify and split the signal to say three or four sets? How do tv
showrooms do it for a couple hundred sets? Same question for a cable
setup, since it seems to be very much like a lot of splitters strung
one after another, yet they are amplifying channel 2 through 117 and
getting them all out the wire OK.

If someone knows of a box that takes the combined signal set from the
various antennas, and can provide relatively isolated outputs to 4 or
8 areas with unit or perhaps a slight gain and no herringbone on the
analog, I'd sure like to hear about it.

Thanks for any comments.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

>>
>If I'm understanding your set-up correctly, you should only
>need (and use) two directional antennas, which should be
>combined as near the antennas as possible with a Combiner
>(make sure it's labeled as such). The single lead should go
>to a central point in the house, where it will hit a
>Distribution Amplifier, which will feed the individual room
>runs.
I wish it were that simple. The three (almost four now) transmitters
vary in azimuth from my location by 200 degrees. No one antenna can
be pointed at all the locations, so I've made a dedicated end-mount
UHF beam point at each one. I added the Join-Tennas when I found
significant multipath (for want of a better word) if the antennas were
joined with a regular UHF passive joiner.

I'd be happy (my wife even happier) if I were able to use one local
antenna and one distant reception antenna. My original message may
have implied one local tower farm that I could just point at. Hope
this clears up the confusion.

Still looking for advice on the distribution amp, though.