The noise figure is awesome...just the "price" figure is :o.

"Mean time between failures: 68 years". I like that!

Gain of 20dB (another plus) and low NF.

What I don't like: 50-900MHz amplification. You'll be amplifying a lot of stuff outside of the TV bands.

That's the same guy selling the "Super Yooper (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=138730)" antennas that are really Fraccaro imports from Italy. Good but not great antennas. ;)

I wonder where these amps come from... great specs but yep, they're pricey. I also wonder if DCI stands for "Direct Current Injector" or maybe these Canadian folks: http://www.dci.ca/?Section=About

they're pricey.
ouch. one could just about get an antenna, rotor system and a pre-amp for that much...

i sent them a email over a week ago asking for more info on the pre amp and never got a reply. someone here will have to test it out for us lol

I wonder where these amps come from... great specs but yep, they're pricey. I also wonder if DCI stands for "Direct Current Injector" or maybe these Canadian folks: http://www.dci.ca/?Section=About

"AbilityHDTV has developed our ULNA/EXT Amplifier under consultation with our pHEMT MMIC manufacturer and strategic partner to ensure that the ULNA/EXT delivers the excellent performance specifications of this highly advanced pHEMT MMIC technology."

I'm guessing that "strategic partner" could be DCI out of Kemptville Ontario...just 15 minutes from where I live...

Apologies if this has been covered before. I am not sure how to formulate the search terms for this question!

I've currently got an unamplified 4221 on my roof (TVFool report (http://www.tvfool.com/modeling/?id=8d1718051ed3ac)), and I have trouble with one or two channels dropping out. Forum member HWP and I played around with his CM7778 pre-amp, but since we didn't have time or equipment to get on the roof, we plugged it in directly before the TV.

Unfortunately, it didn't really improve anything at all for us, so I'm wondering if we should read anything in to that. Does it indicate that a preamp would be useless for me, or was it not a valid test?

Which channels are you having trouble with?

Hi,

Both links are showing file names relating to Cascaded Noise as apposed to one being named a loss calculator. Now the one might indeed be a loss less calculator (I didnt pay much attention to the contents of the file at this point) but the file names are possibly suggesting otherwise.

57.1, CityTV, is one that caused us issues, but in general looking at any channel's signal level on my TiVo or Panasonic TV showed no real boost from unamplified to amplified.

Hoser, your pre amp test is not really valid as signal loss is more where you inserted than right at the antenna. 57 is the weakest of all the TO DTV transmitters. I would re evaluate it in Sept. when they move to 44 and go full power. You will not need a pre amp then.

jod3str,
couple revisions to the sheet I threw together since that one in post#1 (for some reason it doesn't open for me?).

this one should be good.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=1218150&postcount=2446

There is also this cgi script which is pretty cool. See post 2492
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=42426&page=167

Hoser, it's possible that CITY 57 was already degraded by multipath, in which case if it was,
then no pre-amp would fix that. Try panning your antenna some, and see if it cleans up, without
losing something else. If ya lose something else in the process, and it's something
distant, then try the pre-amp again.

The spreadsheet links in Post #1 should be working fine now.

Hey All,

I have to UHF antennas(EagleStar) They are working great I added the CM7777 to the mix and it made it even better. One question. Can i connect each of the antennas to each of the 2 connections on the preamp? Right now it goes into a splitter then into the one UHF port. Then into another splitter to go to 2 tv's.

Thxs for info

No the other terminal is for a VHF antenna.

Hey guys,

i did a newb error and i purchased the channel master 7778 without reading the specs. For some reason i though it was the upgrade of the 7777 lol. my question is it worth it to upgrade to the 7777 or the winegard top model? its another 80$ for .6 less noise and a few more db.

if you guys say that its worth it then i would probably invest in that abilityhd pre amp that has 0.8 noise

xilbus,

Unfortunately, your question isn't possible to answer as it is posed.

Unless you actually NEED the extra 7 dB gain of the 7777 to overcome system distribution losses or the minute difference in noise figure (most people need neither), use the one you already have.

Here is a TVFool report (http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d8d174265d317f4) that was previously posted for xilbus' location.

He is less than 7 miles from one of two main FM/TV Broadcast towers in the region, but he is trying to receive some negative NM stations 80 to 100 miles away in the opposite direction.

What doesn't show on the TVFool are the large number of high power FM stations also broadcasting from the nearest tower 7 miles away. He needs the lowest NF possible for the distant stations, but will need to rely on antenna nulls to attenuate potential intermod from the off-axis local tower. Unfortunately, the second tower (20 miles away) is in line with the distant stations. Luckily, they are lower power and further away.

Note that channel 25 listed currently as 150 kW peak will most likely increase to 480 kW within a few years. There a couple of other digital stations currently in the IC database that are not yet reflected in TVFool:flash cuts channels (on-channel) 30 and 33 (ex-digital 20) from nearby Camp Fortune, and channel 22 (ex-analog 11) from the more distant Herberts Corners tower.

Anybody have any experience with the variou Antennacraft amps compared to the CM 7777?

The Source (I only want to get it from a place that has a return policy) has been OOS of the 7777 for awhile now (was there ever stock...) but the Antennacraft's are in and cheaper which caught my eye.

I have the mast mounted 7777 preamp and the 3412 distro amp. Will plugging in the 7777 and the 3412 cause more problems than good?
The length of the cable between the two is 75 feet. I bought the distro amp because I was planning on connecting to two TV's.
Will the 3412 boost the weak siginals that the 7777 picked up so I can gain a few more stations?
Or will it cause an over load and add so much noise that nothing will come in?