AM/FM antenna

[lewy64]

I also have a 2018 passport 2520rl. Bought back in February this year. I dont really use my stereo. I have dish and listen to the music on there, but from the limited time I did, it seemed fine. I am a new fulltimer. I had only a few things wrong after pickup. The bedroom heater duct was crumpled up from factory, the ac divider between input and output was not sealed correctly leading to bleadthrough, and the toilet wouldn't hold water, the lever was out of one of the holes.


I had installed 5 12v usb and cigarette lighter type outlets throughout the unit. The two usb port under the tv was not enough. The cable connection to the dish receiver is going through the rv door, tried through the connector outside on the back, but no luck getting channels (with or without the amplifier on/off). Although the connector worked on an rv parks free cable.



Be careful with the cabinet doors above and below the tv, when moving the slideout in or out. I caught one of the doors multiple times and deformed the hinges and the moulding. I use kid proof locks to hold them in place now.


Greg

[LaTundra]

I had read on this forum a while back about the radio not being connected to the antenna. I pulled the radio out and found the radio antenna wire not connected. I got a splitter and a short coax. Disconnected the coax from the TV, connected it to the input on the splitter, connected the short coax to the output on the splitter, then to the TV. I connected the radio to the other output on the splitter. AM, FM, TV, all work great.

[WaltBennett]

Originally Posted by slimchancepistolero

... when removing the factory unit i found the radio antennas thin stranded wire balled together behind the radio .... i installed the new unit and unballed the antenna wire, ran it up thru the tv shelf and attached the wires to opposite corners .. at home it works "OK" but in rural Pa, just 20 miles for Harrisburg i can NOT get even one good fm station .. this is mostly the same at the factory unit .. previous Keystone campers had outside am/fm car type antennas but not this one ... so short of drilling a hole in the roof what are some options??

When we bought our new/used 2010 Monty, we had the same problem. Before really getting into it, I was looking through the documentation that came with it and found a cheapo dipole fm antenna in the Samsung bag. Since we've a rear entertainment floorplan with a power lift TV, I was able to staple it to the rear inside wall easily. Not the greatest, but it does work.

As to drilling holes - I had to drill one for an exterior coax connector near where our satellite receiver would go. Lots of sweating about that, but it came out fine.

[n4qpcham]

I have a 2014 Montana HC 318RE that had the same rolled up dipole. I drilled an extremely small hole through the rear of the trailer at the back of the cabinet and pulled the small antenna wire through it. I crimped a ring terminal to the wire and attached it to a screw on the roof ladder. Instant antenna that works great! I came up with this idea when I remembered that some customized vans back in the 70's used the luggage rack for a dipole TV antenna. The crossbar was cut in half, a plastic insulator was put into the cut to separate and isolate the two pieces, and a 300 ohm to 50 ohm TV antenna adapter was connected to the crossbar on each side of the insulator. The coax then went to the TV inside the van.

[jayhart]

We have a 2018 Passport Ultra-Lite and it has the omni-directional (disc) TV Antenna. I believe this is a "UHF only" antenna, since it does not seem to receive VHF signals. If you have a disc antenna, and I am correct about the VHF/UHF specifics of the disc antenna, I doubt hooking it to your radio will accomplish much; the TV band for VHF is very close to the FM radio band but no so with UHF.
If you have one of the bat-wing antennas, then connecting the FM to its coax should bring in some FM. You may have to rotate the bat-wing for directional reception and switch on the booster.

Also, should you feel the need to set up something externally, especially it it is 'portable,' you can connect a coax from it to the "Cable TV In" coax port on the outside of your unit. (You might need a 300 Ohm to Coax adapter to connect to a standard antenna or even a T-shaped setup of 'flat' 300 ohm, antenna wire).

Don't turn on the booster if you use this setup as the booster bypasses the cable inlet wiring and will kill the signal.

[Dadmech]

We only have the roof mounted TV/Radio antenna on our 2018 Hideout 38FDDS. Both work "OK" Not good. Now using DirecTV, so only AM/FM using the disk on the roof. Poor set up IMHO
Saw a 2019 Hideout 38FDDS and it has the "Disk" and an external "automotive" type antenna. Owner tells me AM/FM works well.
Go figure.

[C.LeeNick]

Originally Posted by jayhart

We have a 2018 Passport Ultra-Lite and it has the omni-directional (disc) TV Antenna. I believe this is a "UHF only" antenna, since it does not seem to receive VHF signals. If you have a disc antenna, and I am correct about the VHF/UHF specifics of the disc antenna, I doubt hooking it to your radio will accomplish much; the TV band for VHF is very close to the FM radio band but no so with UHF.
If you have one of the bat-wing antennas, then connecting the FM to its coax should bring in some FM. You may have to rotate the bat-wing for directional reception and switch on the booster.

Also, should you feel the need to set up something externally, especially it it is 'portable,' you can connect a coax from it to the "Cable TV In" coax port on the outside of your unit. (You might need a 300 Ohm to Coax adapter to connect to a standard antenna or even a T-shaped setup of 'flat' 300 ohm, antenna wire).

Don't turn on the booster if you use this setup as the booster bypasses the cable inlet wiring and will kill the signal.

The "disc" antenna on our 2019 Passport says in the manual that it's a TV/FM antenna. I ran the cable and hooked it up to the stereo, and FM reception increased remarkably. One particular state park we frequent is in a canyon, and radio reception is tough. Before hooking up the roof antenna, we barely received a few very "staticky" stations. Now we receive a lot more stations quite well. We even use the same campsite sometimes, so we've been able to compare. It was well worth hooking it up.

The booster works as well. When it's shut off, radio stations disappear. Turn it back on, and the stations come right back. The roof antenna does nothing for AM radio, however.