[mythtv-users] Coax splitters - how painful are they?

[Dean Wilson]

On 9/25/07, Jay R. Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 25, 2007 at 09:56:04AM -0400, Tom Dexter wrote:
> > For OTA would he possibly be better off using a mast mounted amp
> > rather than a powered splitter?  That's what I'm doing.
>
> If you're OTA, you're *always* better putting the amp up the pole, yes.
>

When I first put up my antenna, I didn't realize this, and put the amp
in the basement just prior to my myth box.  My setup (and question)
follows:

I'm 50-60 miles from the stations in Kansas City, where I pull in all
my channels.  I have an outdoor antenna mounted ~25 feet above my
house.  I then run the cable across the house, through the main floor
to the basement, so it's a fairly long (75' ?) run, but I did buy good
coax (I think Belden 1694A:
http://bluejeanscable.com/pages/technicaldocs/1694tech.htm) that
supposedly has low signal loss.  My signal strength is decent, but I
get frequent "blockiness" on the HD channels which I assume is a weak
signal/signal loss.

I've read on this group that I may be better off without an amp, which
I'll try, but at my distance, and with the cable run I have, I doubt
it.  That said, I'd rather not pull down my antenna to replace it with
a larger one, or to put the amp at the antenna, since getting the
antenna up in the first place was pretty tricky.  However, I could
easily place the amp in my attic, which would put it ~30' from the
antenna.  My question is: assuming I determine that an amp is needed,
how much would it help for me to put the amp in the attic?  I'm
worried that after I cut the line in the attic, if I find that it
doesn't help enough, I've now severed the line and weakened the signal
for whatever next method I try...

Thanks for your help,
~Dean Wilson