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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">The best tool I have for aiming antennas is the HDHomeRun Config tool that shows signal strength, signal quality, and symbol quality.<br>
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<div>Check out the HDHomeRun_Config_GUI package</div>
<div><a href="http://www.silicondust.com/downloads/linux">http://www.silicondust.com/downloads/linux</a></div>
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<div>I take my laptop up on my roof with me and use the gui tool to adjust my antenna.</div>
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<div>As far as amplification is concerned, it is highly dependent upon your particular setup. Amps are really only suitable for overcoming loss due to splitters or long cable runs, not for reception issues. I put my HDHR's as close to the antenna as I could, and used some good splitters to keep loss at a minimum... this prevented any need for amplification.</div>
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<div>If you must amplify, I recommend a good mast mount amplifier as close to the antenna as possible. Make sure it is adjustable and only amplify as much as is necessary to overcome the DB loss from the cable and splitters. Alternately, if your splitters are less than 20 feet from the antenna, you could replace them with a good distribution amp instead of using a mast mount to get about the same performance. I would never recommend more than one amplifier as each amp will hurt your SNR (Signal-to-Noise ratio) and eventually make for a strong, but very noisy and worthless signal.</div>
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<div>Research the amp you buy... they vary widely in quality and cost... pay particular attention to SNR vs Gain. A high gain amp is worthless if it is very noisy. Also, try and calculate how much amplification you really need as the higher the gain, the higher the noise (typically). Figure 1 DB per 15ft of coax plus whatever loss you get from splitters (they are usually marked). A loss of 4-5 DB is usually acceptable without amplification... if you can't get a signal after 4-5DB of loss... then it's likely a reception issue that cannot be fixed with amplification alone (antenna, aiming, multipath, etc.)</div>
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<div>Hope that helps.</div>
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<div><a href="http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/basics.html">http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/basics.html</a></div></div>