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Off Air Antenna retrofit
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You may be right Tom but I just cant remember how old I am. Are we getting away from the original thread? I just cant remember what the hell it was.
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Al,
Here’s a great resource for determining what antenna to use at your house: http://www.antennaweb.org/
Bill, I did look at the RV.net article. The only surprise was just how directional the Jack antenna is in the UHF band. Too bad they didn’t also compare an omini directional antenna.
As I’ve said before, you need a batwing antenna to draw in VHF channels if you’re even a realatively short distance from the broadcast antenna, especially low VHF. Keep in mind that few channels are in the VHF spectrum and it will be even fewer in the future. Older antennas sucked at bringing in the UHF channels as few ever watched them. Today, that’s were most digital channels reside. FYI, in the old days your rabbit ears antenna was for VHF and the loop antenna was for UHF. How many of yoy actually used the loop antenna; probably not many that were in VHF range.
The million dollar question is how much antenna is enough antenna? Can you be happy with an antenna that doesn’t have to be raised? Do you want a directional antenna? Keep in mind you might be sitting right between two broadcast areas and a directional antenna may require you to adjust the antenna direction with your channel changing. From Florida to Alaska there were few locations we couldn’t bring in something with this small omni. Of course, there were places that simply didn’t have over the air broadcasts, some because of how rural they were others for what seemed to be a way to promote the purchase of cable services.
BTW, it seems like almost all CGs, even smaller older parks, have cable service provided via a physical cable or locally broadcasted.
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I believe he did not test the omni as they have proven to under perform every other antenna type available. The thread is still open though if you would like to ask the question. The gentleman who wrote it really knows his stuff.
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I am going to change mine out, but it’s really getting less and less important. With the Dish I have now, all I have to do is go online and change the home locals to wherever we’re staying and shazzam, there they are in HD through Dish. Of course this is only good as long is I have sat service and not hidden under a tree somewhere.
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Just wanted to mention that there is a way of getting network channels through directv. It is called DNS for Direct Network Service I believe. The cost is $15 per month and the channels come from either the west coast or the east coast. They wont be the local channels your used to but it does give you the ability to watch the network programs.
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After reading the numerous posts on the Concorde antenna, I would like to share what I have found wrong with my antenna which could save some headaches. In my coachI always had poor TV reception compared to coaches parked near me with the old Wineguard Batwing. At least with my coach and all the Country Coaches I have come across, there is no amplifier on the signal for the Concorde. I was told there was an amp in the plastic housing on the antenna top. The fact is, there is some isolation circuitry and the connector for the coax, but no amplifier. On the Group’s Prevost conversions you may have an amplifier, I did not. I went to Walmart and purchased a RCA 10db amplifier for $130. I installed this in line with the antenna coax in my audio cabinet, plugged it in and I trippled the stations I was receiving. This amp is AC powered via shore/generator or inverter. I also separated that plastic housing on the “wing” portion of the antenna and cleaned the circuit board with some electronic cleaner and “touched-up” some cold solder joints. I also cleaned the female jack for the coaxial cable. It works fine, but what about the cosmetics? I took a nylon scrub pad and cleaned everything and spray painted the center section with Krylon Fusion paint, then sprayed everything with Krylon Clear. If I get another 13 years out of this it will be great!! As far as the antenna not “nesting” front to back properly when going to “Travel” position, is a spring tension problem. If you carefully increase the tension on the two springs that are up against the two legs, that should correct problem. The “weak” link on this antenna I found to be the nylon “raise/lower” gear. Someone on E-bay has machined an exact replacement out of metal. Changing this out if needed is not a difficult task. I am a happy customer and did not have to adapt to a different antenna for over the air signal. If you separate the plastic portion of the antenna, I had to glue and clamp it back together.
Fred
’01 CC Magna…….in Plastic
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Is some of the problem because some of us this have analog antenaes in this era of digital TV?
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Good post fast Freddie, any and all information helps.
Post more often, you lurker, you’ve been at this stuff a long time, but you do talk funny like Red and Ed!
Red — Fred also has Kaws….
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No, Greg, that is not the problem. There is no such thing as a digital or analog antenna. TV has always been broadcast on the UHF and VHF frequencies. Today, more is broadcast on the UHF (75-80% on average but some places are 100% UHF and other areas are less than 25% UHF).
You just need an antenna that has both good UHF and good VHF reception.
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Great post Fred… aka C100
Buy a bus….and post often
Al
Former plastic 2000 Affinity #5851 (2000 thru 2010)
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Although there is no such thing as a digital antenna, Greg your thought is pretty accurate. Antennas of past were tuned primarily for VHF frequencies. That’s were 100% of the national channels use to reside. Today, you may still need reception in the upper VHF band but will certainly need coverage in the UHF band.
What hasn’t been discussed is how much antenna is necessary. Although I don’t have any technical facts to support this it is my gut feel that ATSC (digital TV) receivers have better sensitivity, selectivity, and cochannel interference rejection than older NTSC (analog TV) receivers. I also believe the modulation scheme used for ATSC is better than that used by NTSC. If my gut feel is correct, then the antenna gain needed in the NTSC days would be more than required in the ATSC world we live in today.
If you love your batwing antenna, upgrade it to better support UHF. If you don’t like it, replace it with the directional Jack or omnidirectional antenna. My omni, as I’ve said before, has met our needs and it is the lowest gain outdoor mounted omni you can probably buy. Your needs may differ.
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Hey Fred just make like you didnt read Toms posting. I think the Florida sun disrupts his thought process. Offer him a beer. I have found that if he drinks a few i can figure out what the hell he means. Of course thats if I have had a few also.
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Fabricated a new bracket to adapt the Jack to the Braund Concord powered mast. Blasted the old Concord and painted flat black. Had to rework the saddle and limit switch for antenna down position.
The Jack works really well as others have also said. Very happy with it and the low profile makes it tree friendly compared to the old wing style.
Fabricated aluminum bracket for the arms.
Special order to get a Jack in Black, then blasted old Concord, replaced gears and bushings and painted flat black.
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Robert, that looks great!
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Thanks Gil,,,,, and I know you didn’t just say that cause we have the same last name. LOL
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