Will an Amplifier / Booster help?

First you must understand that an amplifier has only one purpose and that is to compensate for losses in the cable (or in a passive splitter if you fit one) before they occur. This applies regardless of whether you are referring to satellite signals from an LNB, TV signals from an aerial, or UHF signals from an RF Output on your equipment.

If the signal is weak and noisy then by amplifying it you'll get a signal that is stronger and VERY noisy - so noisy that your equipment still can't separate signal from noise.

So an amplifier should be connected as close to the antenna as possible, so that it is boosting a good, clean signal and not one that has been through a cable and corrupted with electrical "noise".

Here's an example: You are hard of hearing and you wear a hearing aid (amplifier). You can hear people talking to you in a quiet room. You go into a dance hall and now you can't tell what people are saying unless you lip-read because the background noise is drowning out their voices. You turn up the volume. Ouch!

It doesn't help because it boosts the noise as well as the voices and overloads your ears. It's better to get closer to the person and turn your volume DOWN.

So you need to increase the signal without increasing the noise. The only way to do that is to use a better antenna or to put it in a location where it can collect more signal or to reduce the cable length. Sometimes you will then need to "turn the volume down" by fitting an attenuator. (If you need to do this, always fit it near the receiver, not the antenna).

So the test for whether an amplifier will help is very simple. Connect your receiver to the antenna with a very short length of good quality cable. If it doesn't work then you need to improve your antenna system. If it works then everything is fine. Now connect it with a long piece of cable. If the performance is worse, an amplifier near the antenna will probably help.

If the amplifier is for an LNB cable, calculate the amplifier gain required by multiplying the cable length (in metres) by 0.3dB. If the amplifier is for UHF signals, multiply it by 0.2dB. So a 30 metre UHF cable needs an amplifier with 30 x 0.2 = 6dB gain. A 30 metre LNB cable needs an amplifier with 30 x 0.3 = 9dB gain. (Assuming ordinary CT100/H109 cable is used).

An amplified splitter has a different purpose. Its purpose is to split a signal to two or more outlets without decreasing the signal. A distribution amplifier is an amplified splitter. A "Loft Box" is another example. These usually have a gain of around 6 - 7dB and will handle 30 metres of cable just fine.

If you amplify a signal then put it through a splitter and connect one splitter output directly to a TV (or whatever) you should fit an attenuator to the TV input to avoid overloading it.

Example 1

Attenuator value = (Amplifier gain - 4dB).

Example 2

Attenuator value = Amplifier gain.