You should think of a TV antenna amplifier like a megaphone for your television.
It can make your picture clearer and look better when you are having trouble getting decent reception from a distant TV tower.
But it doesn’t always help your reception. Using an amplifier when you are close to broadcast towers can make your TV’s picture worse from over amplification.
If you have an adjustable amplifier, turning it up too much can mess up your TV signal and scramble the picture as well.
What to Know about Amplification
When you’re troubleshooting your antenna reception, it’s important not to get confused about the built-in amplification, gain within a TV antenna’s design, and any external amplifier.
Many antenna manufacturers will tell you the built-in gain for UHF and VHF reception within its specifications listing. Ideally, your antenna will have a medium to high gain to help with getting reception from towers that are further away (e.g. 30+ miles).
A low-gain antenna, such as a rabbit-ears, or desktop-style of antenna, is fine if you live very close to broadcast towers. But it won’t help if you live in a rural area.
External amplifiers, also known as Preamps or Distribution Amps, do not improve an antenna’s ability to receive a signal. These kinds of amplifiers are designed with noise-reduction capabilities, so the signal can be passed on through a long cable run or a splitter.
Just to clarify, built-in amplification and external amplifiers can increase signal strength, but they do not improve the antenna’s gain.
When to add an external amplifier
Let’s assume you bought the right kind of antenna, and have mounted it in the best possible spot facing the local towers you want to get signals from.
After a channel scan or two, you still have a couple of stations where you can’t get a picture. Adding a preamp or external amplifier could help mitigate the signal loss – if that’s your problem.
Your goal is to mute the noise, so your TV signal has a clearer or becomes “louder”, so that it can shout above all other over-the-air signals or interference.
Choosing Between a Distribution Amplifier and an Antenna Preamplifier
When you’re setting up your TV antenna to catch all your favorite channels, you might need a little extra help to make sure the picture comes through nice and clear.
That’s where amplifiers come in, but not all amplifiers are the same. Let’s talk about the two main types: the “distribution amplifier” and the “antenna preamplifier.”
Distribution Amplifier
A distribution amplifier is like a splitter that divides the TV signal evenly. You can try it if you are using a single TV antenna for more than one TV. It makes sure that the signal doesn’t get weaker when it’s shared across different TVs.
Antenna Preamplifier
A preamplifier boosts the signal right at your antenna, which can be helpful if you live far away from the TV towers or if there are buildings, trees or hills in the way. It gives your signal the strength it needs to reach your TV without getting fuzzy or lost.
My best antenna amplifier setup
During my antenna trials in the woods of Southern Maine, I learned a valuable lesson about the power of different kinds of amplifiers.
Initially, I used a standard amplifier with a multi-directional antenna, which brought in several channels but struggled with pixelation and failed to pick up the local FOX station 40 miles away.
I then switched to a simpler-looking directional antenna, elevated on a five-foot pole, which managed to catch the elusive FOX station, but with a shaky signal that was in and out.
The real game-changer came when I replaced the standard amplifier with an adjustable preamplifier. By simply dialing down the gain, and re-scanning channels, the FOX station’s signal sharpened to crystal clarity.
This experience taught me that sometimes the key to a perfect picture is in the subtlety of the adjustments.
