In residential TV antenna systems, there are two kinds of amplifiers: pre-amplifiers and distribution amplifiers.

Preamplifiers

A pre-amplifier, often called a "booster" or "preamp", is a mast or antenna mounted amplifier that is used to strengthen the signal at the antenna before the signal has had a chance to weaken through the coax cable between the antenna and the TV. A good way to tell if you need a preamplifier is to connect your antenna to only one color TV with a length of good quality coax cable. Then after you have pointed your antenna in the direction that the desired channels come in the best, see what the TV reception looks like. If some or all of the channels are snowy, then there is a good chance that a preamplifier can help remove some or all of the snow. Preamplifiers consist of two parts: the actual amplifier that is mounted right at the antenna, and the power supply that is located inside the house or building. The power supply supplies a low voltage to power the amplifier through the coax cable between the two units.   View the preamplifiers that we sell Distribution Amplifiers A distribution amplifier is a type of amplifier that is mounted indoors, usually in a central location, and is used to "distribute" TV signals to multiple locations. To determine whether or not you need a distribution amplifier, remove any signal splitters that may be connected to the TV antenna and connect only one TV to the antenna. If the TV reception is good on this one TV, then reconnect the signal splitter(s) and check the reception on the other TV's. If there is a noticeable reception difference between when the one TV was connected directly to the antenna and when the splitter was reconnected, then a distribution amplifier will probably be needed. There are many different types of distribution amplifiers. Some are designed to amplify just off-air broadcast channels and others are designed to amplify off-air and cable channels. There are even some that have one, two and four output splitters built right into the amplifier. Home | Residential Products | Technical Support | About Us | Contact Us © 2006 Stallions Satellite and Antenna - All rights reserved.