[Doug]

The Jack will not fit the Concorde as the mounting bases are very different. I would recommend removing the Braun and installing the Winegard automatic in it’s place (that’s what I did). You will have to go to your converter to see if they can get you one as Winegard is not currently selling the unit on the retail market.

The Winegard will give you the best performance. By the way, the Wingman that updates the Batwing to the new Sensar IV will not fit your Concorde either.

[Archived]

I anticipated having to fabricate a stainless bracket for the three arms of the Braund unit. And the Braund motorized base and arms work well so I don’t mind using it. I really like the wide stance of the Concord’s three arms, they look more stable than the Wingard’s two arms that are close together.

I just hope the performance of the Jack is as good as the reviews say it is. Did you end up with a Jack on a new Winegard base, or did you just install a complete Sensar 3 or 4 ?

I have a wholesale acount with an RV supply house and the Winegard power base is not available through them either. I haven’t tried to contact Winegard since so far I am happy with the Braund base.

[Mike]

Good subject, I want to scrap that batwing piece of crap.

At just 7.6″ tall, this Wineguard is what I’ve been thinking about:

[Paul]

I took the arms off my Braun that wasn’t reliable. I then installed the very antenna Tom pictured. I mounted it directly to the remaining Braun mount. Being able to mount this antenns without adding any new roof penetrations is why I selected this antenna.

I have not noticed any reception problems. The batwing antenna will pick up low VHF channels better than these circular omni directional antennas. The good news is few are broadcasting on the low VHF band and all should vacate this band over time. Digital TV channels are primarily in the UHF in which these antennas work fine.

[tom]

Tom,

That antenna looks a lot like the one Liberty installed on our bus as a replacement. Same shape and size, but I don’t remember the brand.

In our case, it worked great, exceeding the performance of the original, and no mechanical up and down movement to eventually become a “challenge”.

[Peter]

I did look at that stationary antenna and also the stationary mounting base for the Jack antenna. My concern was if the reception would be good enough for the destinations we go.

Seems we are out in the “boonies” quite a bit with the offroad vehicles and only get one or two local channels when we are lucky so the reception is a little more important to us than folks that stay closer to areas with better reception. The areas we go also present the low branches concern so I would like to be as low as possible.

The Tracvision works great down the road and stationary, but my bride has a couple of “shows” she likes and I like to see the local news where we go. Directv has some rule about local channels outside the home location, even though we pay for local channels. Anyway, I am sure everyone has had that conversation and received the same lame excuses so I won’t elaborate any further.

I am still wondering if the Jack will have the reception we need. I bit the bullet and bought one this morning so we will see. I have a couple of places to compare the performance and will post with the results.

I am still surprised there are not any “star wars ” looking fancy stainless super antennas available. The antenna developement looks like it has stopped in the 60’s. I guess once they came up with the go down the road technology they thought that would make the off air antennas obsolete. Probably would have if the local channel laws were not in effect.

[Peter]

The Braun antenna that has been on 3 of my coaches has been a problem on every single one, to the point where I don’t even bother raising it because I don’t feel like climbing on the roof to manually send it “home”. I did that more than I wanted to on the first coach.

Having said that I find if I have the “booster” on, even with the antenna parked I still get decent over the air TV reception. I would like to see a side by side comparison of the two types of antennas to compare how they work because right now I consider the Braun on my roof to be little more than decoration.

[Jim]

here is my take on the Jack. We retrofitted our wineguard with the Jack and it is amazing the HD reception we get. Niw when we move into a Prevost, we will be in the same pickle as everyone else. If the Jack cannot be mounted to the OEM anntena then we might have to make some adjustments. Overall i would buy the Jack again in a heart beat!

[jack]

Hey Tom when you install that new toy please let us know how it comes out. I want to get rid of that concord thing on my roof and as you well know Ed shea needs a new antennae.

[Sid]

Talked to the folks at Barker Manufacturing today, they own the Braund antenna line. The technicians I spoke with said the Concord 90 was discontinued about 5 years ago and they are slowly running out of parts to support repairs. They said there are no plans to continue with parts once the inventories are gone.

I explained the lack of high quality off-air antennas and they agreed. In fact several of the employees have offered suggestions to the company for new style high end antennas aimed just for luxury conversions and HDTV local broadcasts.

They asked if we would express our concerns to their company in the hopes of generating some interest and future antenna products. I sent them an E-mail and hope some more of you will.

The E-mail is : sales@barkermfg.com

[Archived]

Since there are likely more Prevost owners and enthusiasts here than any other site take advantage of this opportunity to influence the products used on our coaches by sending an email. If you don’t do it, nobody will.

[Bill]

Robert – I’ll send an e-mail.

Red – I’ll tackle it once back home in March. Gil has already done it and you can probably get him to post a picture.

[Robert]

Here ya go. Installed and in place for the last 2 years and working trouble-free.

The larger the circular omni-directional antenna the better gain it will have. I opted for the small one due to ease of fitment only. As I said before, the circular antennas are tuned more for the UHF frequencies and higher VHF frequencies where digital channels have moved to than the lower VHF channels. For those out in the very rural areas they may still find local broadcast on the lower VHF channels as they aren’t forced to move anytime soon unless others want to use that band of frequencies. FWIW, all marine antennas are the circular tyoe for obvious reasons. I have anchored in the past in some pretty remote locations and still found a hand full of broadcast channels.

[Archived]

Gil, that looks good using the base.

Replaced antennas on our Country Coach. Under the right conditions while traveling in Oklahoma ,Kansas, Missouri I had 3 damaged when just the right wind conditions would lift the bat wing. On the 3ad replacement I used a bungee cord to secure while traveling. Same antenna on bus but location protects this from happening, I think.

Thanks for the picture. Enjoy reading you’re posting on PC.

[Archived]

Thanks gil that looks great and it helps that you didnt have to put any more holes in the roof. I will get Ed Shea to have his done while he has it up at millenium.If his works out I will do it to mine.