What is a Drop Amp (Drop Amplifier)?
In Cable company terms, each customer has a cable running from a utility pole or pedestal to their home. The “pedestal” is a cable company distribution box – where they hook up a whole bunch of homes to one place. It is generally where you see the cable guys working a lot. The cable company refers to the connection from their “box” to your home as a cable “drop”. Years ago when the signal was too low at a customer’s house, the cable company used to go out and install a “drop amplifier” pretty much for free, just inside the customer’s house. Nowadays, Drop Amplifiers are available from the cable company to compensate for weak signals or multiple TVs, but they charge you a premium for them, and generally don’t give you a choice of models (1,2,4, or 8-port models). So the term “Drop Amplifier” is a cable company term.
