rooftop tv antenna

[wiredgeorge]

Originally Posted by TXiceman

That is a cheap omni-directional antenna, and the truth is that it performs equally poorly in all directions. You cannot expect much if you are over 20 miles from the station.

The best antenna to put on an RV is the old bad-wing Winegard Sensa IV with the Wingman attachment.

Ken

Driving down the road with that thing in the up position is embarrassing; Mine was pretty shot as the knurled end that connected to the bottom part to turn it was completely stripped. I replaced it with a King Jack directional and it seems to work as well although we seldom use it as we stream. And going down the road with the bat wing in up position makes me look like a dimwit to folks going by in the other direction and they don't even see my face.

[TXiceman]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Driving down the road with that thing in the up position is embarrassing; Mine was pretty shot as the knurled end that connected to the bottom part to turn it was completely stripped. I replaced it with a King Jack directional and it seems to work as well although we seldom use it as we stream. And going down the road with the bat wing in up position makes me look like a dimwit to folks going by in the other direction and they don't even see my face.

A few years back we camped with friends next to us that had the King Jack antenna. We had the old Winegard Bat-wing Sensar IV with the Wingman attachment. They we in the site that backed up to ours and we could pick up 50% more stations than they could. We took his TV and hooked it up to our antenna. He could pick up many more stations. To make sure, we toted our TV over to his camper and I got the same miserable performance he had on his TV.

Since then, we have been in several locations that the folks with King Jack antennas. Our bat-wing outperforms them all. The King Jack is better than an omnidirectional antenna, but the bat-wing is still better.

Our Cougar came with the Winegard 360 and it is still a weak antenna.

As for leaving the bat-wing up, we always made a walk around of the RV to check everything including antennas and all lights.


Ken

[fivergeezer]

We have the same antenna system on our 2022 Passport. It worked fine in our driveway & at the dealership about a mile away. But on the road or at rural campgrounds, zilch. I finally bypassed the junk OEM antenna & it’s equally poorly designed wiring system, replaced the not smart tv with a smart tv & now everything including our direct tv & Wineguard walkabout satellite receiver work flawlessly. I get all local channels, satellite channels & Netflix & Amazon Prime. For some reason, the satellite system & streaming services doesn’t like cable connections no matter how well they are installed. And, the factory booster is in the bedroom with the set up for a bedroom tv which we don’t have & the cable splits & goes to the dinette where the main tv is located. Drilling a hole & installing a weathertight cable connector brought the cable in right behind the tv set & satellite box & fixed the issue. Probably just replacing the Omni with a directional antenna would have achieved the same result but at 80 yrs old, I don’t do ladders or roofs any more.

[Shedboy]

Two approaches to RV OTA (Over the Air) antenna optimization, 1. Optimize what you have, 2. Use replacement antenna. If you have a friend who is an amateur radio operator he/she might be a valuable counselor.
Tools – A common tool used for antenna optimization is called a “Field Strength Meter”. You can get one on Amazon, it is a handy thing to have.
OPTIMIZE WHAT YOU HAVE:
It appears that the antenna that you have is a “Halo” omni-directional. Several valid responses to your inquiry address the issue of assuring that the antenna is hooked up and working properly. Without a field strength meter, you can get a rough idea by allowing the TV receiver to “auto tune” with the RV in your driveway, taking note of the number of channels that it receives. Then disconnect the antenna, auto tune again and count the number of stations. There should be a big difference if the antenna is working and hooked up properly.
A similar test can be made by driving the RV to an unobstructed hill top and comparing the number of auto-tune stations with the antenna connected and disconnected. This test can be used to compare the antennas mentioned below.
As with all antenna designs, there are compromises. Some antennas are omni-directional with marginal reception, and some are very directional with superior reception. There is a lot of TV reception and antenna info at www.tvfool.com . The issue of convience is operative, the omnidirectional antenna is trouble free, does not need to be adjusted at each new location where the directional antenna needs adjustment.
EMPLOY ALTERNATIVE ANTENNA:
There are several types of antennas that are easy to build and offer cheap and good OTA reception for RV’ers.
Co Linear Omni directional Antenna
https://k5frc.org/training/coliner%20antenna.pdf
This isthe antenna type that I chose, it has superior gain and takes little space. A disadvantage is that I have to remember to lower and stow it before traveling.
Folded Dipole directional antenna (needs a balun for use with coax cable, available at Best Buy)
https://matthews.sites.wfu.edu/misc/dipole.html
Stacked Halo directional antenna
https://www.instructables.com/Build-...p-UHF-Antenna/

[TXiceman]

With the Winegard 360, they claim up to 55 mile reception. Horse-feathers. We do go to get 30 miles. Right now we are about 25 miles from the towers, pretty flat terrain and the stations are all pixilating. I will be seeing about it with a Winegard Sensar IV.

Ken

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by TXiceman

With the Winegard 360, they claim up to 55 mile reception. Horse-feathers. We do go to get 30 miles. Right now we are about 25 miles from the towers, pretty flat terrain and the stations are all pixilating. I will be seeing about it with a Winegard Sensar IV.

Ken

The catch phrase there is the "up to". Just a guess here but I'd guess that 55 mile range was calculated by an engineer that plugged in an optimal broadcasting frequency, pushed by the maximum power allowable by the FCC on a tower at the maximum height. Then they used an unobstructed line of sight transmition with ideal weather/air conditions. It's not a real world example and I would realistically expect to get about 50% of that performance.

[Kirk's Keystone Outback.]

Originally Posted by flybouy

The catch phrase there is the "up to". Just a guess here but I'd guess that 55 mile range was calculated by an engineer that plugged in an optimal broadcasting frequency, pushed by the maximum power allowable by the FCC on a tower at the maximum height. Then they used an unobstructed line of sight transmition with ideal weather/air conditions. It's not a real world example and I would realistically expect to get about 50% of that performance.

Sounds a lot like how auto manufacturers figure out best gas mileage, all perfect conditions.

[pawpaw]

Our Cougar came with the Wineguard 360. Pick up stations from New Orleans easily which is a good 50 miles away in a straight line. Perfect conditions I can pick up a few channels from Baton Rouge which may be 60 to 65 miles away. Since I was able to get a new Key TV module it works a lot better.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by Kirk's Keystone Outback.

Sounds a lot like how auto manufacturers figure out best gas mileage, all perfect conditions.

Or the auto manufacturers and the RV manufacturer's "calculations" regarding the term "Half Ton Towable".....

[MahiTacos2]

I have a outback 320ubh and it looks like a wineguard omni directional. That being said I have “line of sight” issues picking up channels at my house. Look up antenna web.org and see if you’re fighting line of sight.

[wiredgeorge]

Stop messing with the antenna on your roof and buy one of these; plug n play and 250 mile reception... really. I saw another similar antenna and it claimed 450+ mile reception range. I guess whoever tells the biggest whopper wins.

https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Ampli...35605017&psc=1

[hlh1]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Stop messing with the antenna on your roof and buy one of these; plug n play and 250 mile reception... really. I saw another similar antenna and it claimed 450+ mile reception range. I guess whoever tells the biggest whopper wins.

https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Ampli...35605017&psc=1

I guess if you stick it on the window of an airliner at 35,000 feet...

[wiredgeorge]

My point is, I guess companies marketing stuff like antennas can make any claim they like in marketing. "my 1/2 ton truck is rated to tow 10K lbs", "1/2 ton towable means you can tow it with your F150"... on and on.

Folks have generally become more leery of claims and there is no good reason to swallow antenna ad claims. I have an app on my Android phone called "DTV Antennas" and it tells me distance to all OTA transmitters. It does this based on geo location. For instance, channel KXTM-LP (ch. 31) is 38.4 miles from where I am sitting at the moment and it say OUT OF READH ACCORDING TO FTC COMPUTATIONS. There are a bunch more that are farther away and we could not pick them up. There is a KCWX (CW) (ch 2) that is 44.1 miles away and I know we can not pick it up using our OTA antenna which is pointed about 45 degrees (towards San Antonio) as I not only have the antenna on my RV roof but also have one mounted high on our laundry room and connected to a small TV in that room for my missus viewing when doing laundry. It works well and gets many stations but not KCWX as the antenna is pointed towards the big city. Not sure when KCWX is located.

[LHaven]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Stop messing with the antenna on your roof and buy one of these; plug n play and 250 mile reception... really. I saw another similar antenna and it claimed 450+ mile reception range. I guess whoever tells the biggest whopper wins.

https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Ampli...35605017&psc=1

I can get the "PBC" network with it? I'm in!

[Sonders]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Stop messing with the antenna on your roof and buy one of these; plug n play and 250 mile reception... really. I saw another similar antenna and it claimed 450+ mile reception range. I guess whoever tells the biggest whopper wins.

https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Ampli...35605017&psc=1

We have one of those we tried out hooking directly to the smart tv in the bedroom. Stuck the antenna to the window and doesn't really do any better. I guess the campgrounds we've been to so far this year just are remote enough to not pick up much. I still want to pick up one of the signal testers mentioned earlier in the thread to verify everything is hooked up correctly. Haven't messed with the camper lately as we've been busy running the kids to all their sporting events; haven't camped in over a month.

[RagingRobert]

Holy TV reception Batman...looks like the old Batwing antenna fastened to my ladder is worth a try Commissioner Gordon I'll get Robin to do most/all of the setup/ladder work We really need to keep up with live Gotham City news, weather, and any crime fighting updates Oh for the love of TV/glamping...won't be long until Uber delivers drinks, dinner and DVD's to your site I/we like watching fires, neighbors, dogs, the weather, trees, birds, kids, awesome views and good Dvd's...TV is great when available but shouldn't be an issue really, or is it?

[Sonders]

Originally Posted by RagingRobert

Holy TV reception Batman...looks like the old Batwing antenna fastened to my ladder is worth a try Commissioner Gordon I'll get Robin to do most/all of the setup/ladder work We really need to keep up with live Gotham City news, weather, and any crime fighting updates Oh for the love of TV/glamping...won't be long until Uber delivers drinks, dinner and DVD's to your site I/we like watching fires, neighbors, dogs, the weather, trees, birds, kids, awesome views and good Dvd's...TV is great when available but shouldn't be an issue really, or is it?

Yeah not that big of an issue for us, as you can tell how urgently I've not attempted to fix it. It's just one of those would be nice if it worked items. We didn't even have a tv in our first camper just a few short years ago haha. I guess we start to get spoiled with creature comforts when they're available.