-
Bye Bye Batwing Antenna
-
Are there any Pros/Cons as far as buying a black or a white one? I’m talking about the color of the dome on the Rayzar?
Good post by the way Truk!
-
I did white because it matched to roof color Jerry.
-
Black will produce more heat inside the dome. Electronics and heat are not friends.
Jeff and Lindsay
91 Marathon XL -
Sounds like white it is then!
-
Tom
You have had your Winegard Razor for a few months now. What do you think? I have read some reviews on line that are less than stellar. A common complaint seems to be signal freeze. Does you signal freeze up where you have to reset the device? Do you feel like you receive all of the local channels as you travel?
What are the pros and cons?
Give us an official “Tom” review.
Thanks – Michael
-
Michael,
So far the Rayzor has been flawless and I haven’t had to do any reset or new scan once it powers up and finds the stations. What I really like, is while hooked to our Samsung, you can press Guide on the Samsung remote and see all stations, shows and times.
The best part, I don’t have to worry about the freaking batwing actually raising and lowering or should I say not raising and lowering. Or, turning 90 degrees and then trying to nest itself, good riddance.
-
Ditto what Tom says. (did I just type that?) Had mine on for a couple of months and works flawlessly (hope I don’t jinx myself). Easy install from the clothes line, sometimes called a bat wing. Came with a cover plate to cover the bat wing hole(s). Much better reception with semi-true HD. No problems with the auto scan and you can even over ride with a manual scan.
-
I too replaced my Bat Wing just before this trip.
Works well. On my Liberty my unit is mounted on the flat section on the rear flat section before the spoiler. This is a little far away from the controller – as it states “no more than 30′ cable length from the antenna to the controller”. – certainly I am well over the 30′ as my controller resides in the table behind the drivers chair. Reception is good, but not a big upgrade. In the coming weeks I will attempt to test this with a shorter cable feed to decide if I want to relocate the control panel for better overall performance.
I’ll let you know how that test works out with some before and after signal measurements for those of you with similar wiring schemes. (Liberty for sure – probably not most Marathons) -
Ours was installed in the the rear low part of roof too.. I think that may be the problem I think I am only getting half the channels I should get…Thinking of having Jeff move it to the top of the coach when we are there if it’s not too big of a deal… if we determine that’s the problem… the good thing is that Jeff will know what channels I should receive at his place.
Cheers, Diane
-
Diane,
What do you mean by ‘low part’ of the roof? I thought all of the H roofs were totally flat and even from front to back (maybe slight curvature for water run-off).
Ok, I will admit it, I broke our batwing antenna as I forgot to lower it. And, the warning on the dash was on but you have to read it to see it! LOL! Too much going on in my head that day I guess.
Liberty put a new one on. Those are really robust antenna mechanisms. It’s nice that the antenna part has a weak spot as there was no damage to the roof, the ‘T’ was ripped off of the antenna by a low hanging wire at a RV park in Texas.
Mark
-
On my H, there is a dip in the back of the roof of about 3″-4″ in depth and about 3′ in length. This is where my in-motion satellite dish is located.
I was about to do this upgrade and my DW asked me how many times I used the Antenna to watch TV. I said “zero,” but it sounded like a good idea.
Next thing I know she had me convinced that the $300 was better spent at a local winery here in Oregon. I’ll let you know after we’re done with the case of wine if it was worth it 🙂
-
Mark…
Ours has the same dip in the rear like Tim just mentioned… your newer body may be different You can’t even see ours from the ground looking up even at a distance… our concord (batwing like) was installed back there and it couldn’t be seen when retracted either…I am thinking it may be too low to get an all around signal like it’s designed to do.Our coach is also a little lower in the front where the satellite dish is.
I am so glad your bus wasn’t damaged by your antenna… that would have been horrible !!
Safe travels to you and Craig.
Cheers, Diane
-
Here is a pic of my ‘mishap’. Along with the batwing being ripped off, it also broke off a part of the gear. That’s why Liberty replaced it with a new one.
As a side note, we have never activated our satelite system. We either have cable or we use the batwing. Trying to get Direct TV to understand a motorhome on our ‘pick-up day’ was a nightmare. I spoke with 9 different people to try an activation and it was useless. I may try again in the future but we have only been without TV maybe twice in almost 3 yrs.
Mark
-
Mark,
I will not make any excuses for Direct TV, but I did not have any big issues getting my two receivers set up. I told them it was in an RV, but the set up is identical.
Now if you’re talking about dealing with actual satellite issues (dish or in-motion), then DirectTV is basically worthless because they will not come out to work on your dish like they would if you had a S&B.
One other point, I find myself streaming more & more, using my Apple TV to view thru my primary TV, so I may not renew DIRECTV Satellite in November when my subscription expires.
-
I had a home receiver from Direct TV that would cause the TV to go blank intermittently. A Direct TV former contractor was doing systems work on the house A/V system so he checked the entire system and tuned the dish so the signals were maxed out and proclaimed the ancient receiver was the problem because it was not set up to properly receive all the updates Direct TV sends to its receivers in the middle of the night.
While I would rather eat bees than try to talk to Direct TV I put on my big boy pants and called the number. After trying to get past the robot that answers calls for about 10 minutes I finally got hold of a real person. I had a little trouble understanding his accent but for the most part we were able to communicate. When he started to read the instructions he gives everyone that actually reaches a human with problems I was able to stop him and using the lingo the former Direct TV installer told me he got right to the issue of agreeing to send me a new receiver.
For reasons I cannot explain I was put on hold for 20 minutes while he apparently confirmed he could send a receiver without first making me go through the standard procedure of unplugging the receiver, etc. etc. and checking signal strength, etc. etc. When he cam back on the phone he said he would send a new receiver.
But after confirming the address and the serial number of the old one he asked me to hold again. 20 more minutes go by and he gives me a number which apparently represented the order number. We had a further conversation in which I indicated I was not going to agree to extend my contract just because the receiver was broke. More confusion despite the fact I carefully explained it was their receiver that broke. When he said it was my receiver and I had to pay to replace it we discussed all the monthly charges plus the fact I had to send it back. More time on hold.
Bottom line was I got my new receiver and it is installed and doing what it is supposed to do. The next time anyone suggests I call Direct TV I think I will do something pleasant instead. Something more fun like sticking a knife in my eye.
Log in to reply.