split antenna signal?

[ingenue007]

so my TW cable is now canceled. i only have OTA HD now. i have a nice antenna that i would like the signal split to both my tv and series 3. is there an adapter that can split the signal? i'm sure there must be one, i just don't know what it is called. thanks.

[moyekj]

It's cleverly called a "RF splitter". They come in many varieties but all you need is a simple 2-way splitter which is available at pretty much any electronics store. It's the same splitter you would use for cable TV splitting. If you had more than 1 TV in your home hooked up to receive cable then you already have/had a splitter where your cable drop comes into the house.

[gastrof]

I'd add here that putting an amp into the mix somewhere might be the better move, especially if the signal from the antenna is being split off to several different spots in the house.

Sometimes even a two way split can weaken a signal enough to cause trouble.

[Bierboy]

I would also go with one something like this (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=287227) that goes up to 1,000MHz. Monster is, of course, overpriced, but something similar.

[randywalters]

I'd add here that putting an amp into the mix somewhere might be the better move, especially if the signal from the antenna is being split off to several different spots in the house.

Sometimes even a two way split can weaken a signal enough to cause trouble.This is a good point - make sure the splitter you get is at least 1,000MHz like Bierboy recommended, then check the signal strength on all your channels on both the TV and the Tivo and write them all down. I have such a splitter feeding my TV and S3 and it only reduced the signal strength by a few points at most, if at all (depended on the channel). My problem was with my antenna.

If your signals are good enough then you're probably ok without an amplifier, but if the signals are weak (as mine were with my old regular roof antenna) then get a powered amplifier/splitter. I used an old one that i'd gotten at Radio Shack some years ago and it improved my signal quite a bit (i'm 29 miles from the digital broadcast towers). It was only rated at 900MHz but it was rated for (and worked with) with interactive cable which means it's good enough for a digital signal and it did work very well. Newer ones have a higher MHz rating.

I then went one step further and recently installed a Stealth HD Antenna in it's place but it gave me a marginal to poor signal strength on some of the channels so i added the optional powered amplifier and my signal went from 35-50 to about 82-96 on my various channels and they're now rock solid. Huge improvement.

[ingenue007]

oh sweet. i have a splitter for the cable already. and i have a signal amplifier from my old terk antenna. thanks.

[moyekj]

US UHF TV transmission range only goes up to 806MHz so a splitter rated for 900MHz is plenty sufficient:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_high_frequency#United_States_2
For cable & satellite you need higher, but not for OTA transmissions. If the digital transition ever completes then OTA highest channel frequency will be even lower.

[randywalters]

US UHF TV transmission range only goes up to 806MHz so a splitter rated for 900MHz is plenty sufficient......For cable & satellite you need higher, but not for OTA transmissions. If the digital transition ever completes then OTA highest channel frequency will be even lower.Wow i never knew all that, that's really good to know. Thanks!

oh sweet. i have a splitter for the cable already. and i have a signal amplifier from my old terk antenna. thanks.Cool, you might want to check your signal strength first first without the amplifier, then again with the amplifier and see what kind of improvement it gives you. My old Radio Shack amp gave me a pretty good improvement with my regular old antenna, but the integrated amp on my new Stealth antenna gave me an even bigger improvement on my TV's internal tuners (none of which i had written down).

And here's the results i got with the S3 (which i did write down):

------------------------

Channelmaster #3010 Stealth Roof Antenna (30 mile rating w/o amp), with the optional integrated #3038 powered amplifier.

Channel - Without Amp - and - With Amp

2-1 KCBS-DT was 35 without amp, and with amp it's 88

4-1 KNBC-DT was 76 without amp, and with amp it's 82

5-1 KTLA-DT was 87 without amp, and with amp it's 96

7-1 KABC-DT was 53 without amp, and with amp it's 95

11-1 FOX-DT was 64 without amp, and with amp it's 86