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Off Air Antenna retrofit
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Red
When you get yours done I will do my coach as well or maybe wait till the April Rally. Let me know where you are getting your parts from.
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Will do Hish, Im riding over to millenium tomorrow with Ed and we will see what they come up with. Tell Sue to get well soon. We will talk to you tomorrow afternoon
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If you want the best performance from your OTA TV antenna you need a Batwing antenna with the Wingman add-on (or the Sensar IV which has the Wingman built-in). This is not an opinion, it’s been a well tested unit by many RVers and specifically tested by one very knowledgeable RVer who knows what an ocilliscope is an how to use it. He recently compared the preformance of the Jack and the Winegard head-to-head and the Batwing came out a big winner. If anyone here knows Bill Hendrix, he did a conversion of the Braun to a Batwing years and years ago so he might already know what needs to be setup to make that work. If anyone’s interested I can find the link to the tests but I believe it was done on the RV.net forums.
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A link would help Bill, and if you can link to a discussion of the test and results in addition to photos that would be great.
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Bill, I’d like to see that report as well. I’m telecomminications guy with years of RF work. There is no question a batwing antenna will bring in VHF channels (2-13) better than all others. If fact, the circular omni directional antennas may not be tuned at all to those frequencies or offer little to no gain. Also, the bigger the antenna array the higher the gain and more directionality. With that said, the broadcasters may be moving out of the lower VHF band (2-6). Most ATSC (digital) channels are found in the UHF band.
As an example of where the brodcasters are today I just pulled of the RF channel designations, not the digital channel identifiers that can be identified by their .X listing number, like 3.1, 3.2, etc… There are no broadcast in the lower VHF band (2-6). PBS broadcasts in both the upper VHF and UHF bands; NBC, CBS and Fox are on the upper VHF channels. There are 13 broadcast networks with multiple channels in the UHF band.
Generally, the manufacturer of the OTA antennas manufactured for the RV and marine industry don’t include frequency and gain specifications.
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Need to make a purchase soon for over air.. my problem I preferr nothing on roof..
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Thanks Gil, now I’m really confused.
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DUUUUHHHHH me too ! We just dropped off Eds coach at millenium and after a brief chat Im g to see how Eds reception is before I maI told them about the one Tom wants and I think thats what they are going with. Stay tuned Tom.
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Okay, what’s the point(s) of confusion?
- Bigger almost always equals higher gain.
- Directional is always more selective than a similar omni directional antenna.
Neither of the above points matter if you can get the channels you want with a smaller antenna. Although I haven’t verified this, my gut feel is few if any RV manufacturers are installing the batwing antennas any more. The fact of the matter is that you will get far better reception with ATSC (digital TV) broadcast than you did in the past with NTSC (analog TV).
I have looked at the specifications supplied by King Controls (Jack Antenna), Winegard (Sensars and Omnis), Baker (Braund Concord), Shakespeare (marine omnis), and Glomex (marine omnis) and very little technical data is provided. No one states antenna gain, some state amplifier gain. Most tell you the channels supported and they are roughly the same. Other than the omnis that cover 360 degrees, not of the directionals provided antenna patterns.
Let me just say my only direct comparison data I have is my own. When I replaced my old Concord and replaced it with this smallish omni I didn’t loose any channels. That to is somewhat meaningless other than I was in a rural location when I replaced it so I wasn’t getting all of the available broadcast from either antenna.
If you have an older antenna you NEED improved UHF antenna capability, few channels that anyone watched in the analog days were carried over UHF. If you have a new antenna, any antenna, enjoy what you have changing it out probably won’t make a big difference unless you want to strap one of these to a mast every time you park.
Still confused? Great…mission accomplished.
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Gil
Can you use the same cable that was attached to the old one, or do you have to run a new one through the roof?
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Hey Gil that rig must pull in signals from the starship enterprise. Sorry about my last message,i dont know what happened to half the words,geez I dont even know what it was supposed to be saying. Must be that damn alzheimers again!
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It’s CRS Red and Gil is just helping you cause you’re old….
Using Gil’s advice, I decided to just stick a coat hanger out the window. It picks up UHF, VHF, THB, CTT and Jon’s phone signal from his can and string.
Now this thread has gone south for sure.
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I did find the post. I was on the RV.Net forum and you can read the results (if you can follow better than I) here:
You can skip some of the overall details if they are a bit overwhelming and skip to the results sections which appear to me to be pretty clear.
Admin – Your link is corrected
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Gil,
Let me run this by you for your opinion. We live in KC area about 15 miles from downtown KC. Time Warner Cable is the service available for our home. Storms in the spring often knock TWC out.
If I was to mount an antenna on the exterior of our home what would be your choice ?
How would this be attached to our TV ? As the install for our last TV is just plug in the cable and fire it up, I haven’t looked if rabbit ears or home roof antennas even have a place any more for attachment.
Tom ….rabbit ears tech could be available in your area soon.
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The major networks in KC, MO are on the UHF frequencies.
CBS 5 is on 24
Fox 4 is on 34
ABC is on 29
CW 29 is on 31
NBC 41 is on 42
PBS 19 is on 18
Assuming those are the channels you are looking for a good UHF only antenna would work very well as these stations are listed as being less than 10 miles from downtown and they are scattered across about a 45 degree range somewhat S to E of KC.
Somthing like this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DFS4BI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001DFS4BI&linkCode=as2&tag=ibank4reviews-20
It could be mounted in an attic or on a chimney and will pull in all those plus a number of other lesser known channels and possibly channels from surrounding areas.
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