TV setup for dummies

TheBeans · 05-06-2014, 07:16 PM

Okay...I'm just about ready to throw in the towel and pronounce the TV that came in our new rig to be a huge enough irritant that I want to rip it out of the connections!

I need help....please feel free to chime in if you can think of something I am not doing.

1) the tv and the antenna are both new...so receiving digital signals is not an issue.
2) the antenna is a Winegard batwing-style and is cranked up/down and rotated by hand inside.
3) the tv came installed....and it appears that all cables are connected to where they should be. I hope. I am not overly tech-savvy so I can only hope.
4) while camping, we raised the antenna, ran an Auto Scan, per the very limited instructions in the manual and got zero channels. Yes, the booster was on. We were only about 20 miles from a nearby large city, so don't know what the problem was.
5) when we got home from this same trip, we tried it again: raised antenna, aimed it at the direction needed, ran Auto-Scan, then we got 4 channels, none of which was the local broadcasting from ABC/CBS or NBC! And yes, the booster was on.

Since we easily get local broadcasting here at home, wouldn't it stand to reason that we should've been able to find them in our trailer (parked out back of our house) too? What are we doing wrong? This is about the most frustrating appliance I have ever seen!

Festus2 · 05-06-2014, 08:00 PM

When you ran Auto Scan, did you see any indication on the screen that you were receiving any channels? When we run our scan, there is a bar that slowly moves across the screen, an indication of two possible types of signals (analog and digital) as well as another indicator showing the signal strength when a channel is picked up and the number of channels received.

Not sure of your TV but on ours, if we are using the RV antenna, there are several INPUT options and we have to set ours to TV.

Each type of TV has a slightly different process for setting it up to receive channels as well as different names on the remote so what works for us may not work for you.

Is it possible that when you were set up 20 miles from the city you were in an area with no or poor TV reception?

ctpd814 · 05-06-2014, 08:54 PM

The one thing I did not see in your post is was the TV set to antenna? Most of the TVs have the option of cable or antenna. If you did not have it set to antenna, change it. When it does a channel scan, it should scan for analog and digital channels.

The one thing I have found in using the antenna is there is no rime or reason as to when or where the signal will work. I have had it work great one day and not at all the next.

GaryWT · 05-06-2014, 09:10 PM

On my tv's the choose is cable or air. Just be sure you are picking the non cable choice.

Have you tried it on cable? If not you might want to run a cable from the house and run a cable scan to see what channels you get.

Javi · 05-07-2014, 04:06 AM

Them antenna is directional, did you aim it?

{tpc} · 05-07-2014, 04:46 AM

You may also try checking the connections. Ours came with a nice right angle cable connection that was between the cable and the tv. I'm not quite sure why it was there, and I removed before I even turned the tv on the first time. In the process of doing so, I noticed that at both ends the cable wasn't tight all the way.

You can also look down into the cable itself and verify there are no little "hairs" from the outside shielding touching the center conductor. This could have a bad effect on signal.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to tell ya. Maybe pull out the wall plate where the booster is and see if anything is loose back there? As long as I remember to put the booster on, ours has worked like a champ. We have only camped once lol, but either way, we have pulled in like 40 channels, most in HD or digital. Nice clear picture. If the booster is off....we might get 1 grainy channel, but usually none, lol.

HappyCamperMN · 05-07-2014, 06:03 AM

Trouble shooting television signal problems can be a PITA, no doubt!

My best advice is to start with known good, working components and then gradually add to that until either everything is working or you find the source of the problem.

Do you have another portable television from the house that you can use? Can you tune local OTA (over the air) stations via a home antenna on this television? Do you have a piece of coax from the house that you know works?

I would start by connecting from the antenna on your RV via the coax you know works to the TV from that house. Run the channel scan and confirm that you get results similar to what you expect when the same television is in the house. As some have mentioned, make sure that the antenna is appropriately pointed.

If you can get this setup to work, then gradually add components one at a time to test out wiring within the trailer, the television in the trailer, etc...

Sounds long and tedious, I know, but it's about the only way to really figure things out.

Hope that helps.

**hankpage** · 05-07-2014, 06:13 AM

If you were receiving 4 channels at home your cables are most likely not shorted ..... you may want to check that they are tight. Go to antennapoint.com and enter your ZIP code and they will give you a map and a listing of all channels available at that location, their distance, network call sign, channel, UHF or VHF and compass bearing from your location anywhere in the country. You should be able to pick up any strong UHF channel closer than 40 miles but aiming is critical. VHF channels are not as fussy with aiming but many are weak or cut power at night. JM2¢ but I think most of your problem is aiming towards transmitters. Here is the biggy .... every time you change the aim of the antenna you have to rescan the channels.

or enter the channel you are looking for with the remote. (Like 2.1 or 2-1 depending on your tv)
Hope this helps, Hank

You can also make sure your tv is set to receive OTA signals (ANT - AIR or whatever tv calls it in set up) Enter the channel you want with your remote (be sure to put in the .1 or -1) and slowly turn the batwing until you get a signal.

TheBeans · 05-10-2014, 06:38 PM

Many thanks to all of your for your thoughts and suggestions. I've spent a good portion of today monkeying with the connections and the antenna and I've learned a few things which I'll share here:

When the tv is turned on, I have the choice of Cable or Air. Nothing happens when it is on Cable so I chose Air. After that, I ran an auto-scan with the antenna in one direction and then turned the antenna and ran another auto-scan and learned that I definitely pick up additional channels in one direction as opposed to others. Funny thing is though, the direction is not at all what I was expecting, given the information that I pulled from antennapoint.com! At that website I was shown that the best signals would come from the south/south-east....but the best signal I actually got came out of the west. Having said that, the "best" I could get was only 11 channels. When the Auto-Scan was done, it provided me with the following "found" stations: Analog-0 (which is no surprise); Digital-66 (none of which I could see); RF-11...all of which were the ONLY channels I could see.

These 11 RF channels consisted of: one religious station; one Spanish/Mexican war-docudrama; 3 home shopping networks; two home/lifestyle; one manga (sp?) cartoon station; one PBS (out of Canada!); two unknown stations (iffy picture on screen). With the exception of the home shopping networks and the PBS station out of Canada, we don't even get the other channels in the house (we are on Direct TV satellite in the house).

Then, having done some more research I learned that "RF" means Radio Frequency and that a converter is sometimes needed to make the incoming signals viewable. I have no idea if I need a converter or not on such a new system. Any thoughts? And, what happens with the 66 Digital stations the Auto-Scan says it found but I cannot see? Any recourse to getting those on the TV instead of the RF channels? Still don't understand why we are not picking up the big 3 major broadcast stations---they transmit clearly to where we are w/o problems. Last but not least, I found a video on YouTube about the Winegard Wingman...an add-on booster for the exterior antenna....that says it will improve the signals we get 100%. Anyone have this gizmo and will it make any difference to what we aren't getting now (regular tv channels)?

"Curioser and curioser!"

B&T · 05-10-2014, 07:12 PM

Quote:

that says it will improve the signals we get 100%. Anyone have this gizmo and will it make any difference to what we aren't getting now (regular tv channels)?

The addition of the Wingman will only improve signal reception in the UHF band which will improve any channels above 14. 100% -- dunno about that claim, I saw some improvement but doubt that it was 100%. The Wingman will not improve channels operating in the UHF band , generally 2-11.

Festus2 · 05-10-2014, 07:23 PM

TheBeans -

I came across this website which may provide you with some information and hopefully some help with your issue:

www.everything-about-rving.com/digital-tv.html

There are several links near the bottom of the page which could be useful.....

B&T · 05-10-2014, 07:50 PM

TheBeans, You should not need an additional converter box as your TV already has one built in(since it recognizes digital signals). This may confuse you more than help but I will give it a try. Multiple Digital channels are now broadcast on individual RF channels. For example, RF Channel 11 in my area now has 11-1, 11-2, 11-3, all of which are digital.
Most of my converter boxes and Tv's have two ways to scan. A wipe all channels from memory and rescan which is useful when re-scannng in a new reception area-- and a keep last scan informatio and add channels scan which is useful when turning the antenna to a different direction. Most TV's have a signal reception indicator which can be selected from the menu to allow you to fine tune the antenna direction for a particular channel. You might have a read here:

http://www.wikihow.com/Scan-for-DTV-...-Converter-Box

It will not be specific to your tv but will give you the background info on tv signals.

Hope I have given you some help.

Dave45039 · 05-11-2014, 04:25 AM

Actually You won't pick up any digital stations without the Wingman attachment. That is what it is designed for.

The Wingman attaches to the existing Sensar head with 3 simple screws - no tools required!

The Wingman increases UHF dB gain up to 100%
Allows the Sensar to receive post 2009 DTV and HD channels on both UHF and VHF
Compatible with all manual crank-up Sensar antennas (RV and GS series) Gray model to match home exterior

Javi · 05-11-2014, 04:26 AM

Here's the deal about them cell phone antenna pointing apps.... they suck

Also, as I said earlier the wing type antenna are directional and need to be pointed at the sending tower. Well that can be a mess too, because anything that is between you and that tower can and will mess up the signal strength and that includes any buildings, mountains, hills, trees and even other taller RVs. These things are all line of sight, that's why they build the towers so high and why the folks that are still on antennas at home stick the things 60 feet up in the air.

Your best friend when it comes to antenna and reception may well be an old fashion compass and a paper map of the area. Well that and a little patience as the towers aren't always in the middle of town either.

I've even noticed that where I am in the campground can make a huge difference in our reception. In one of our favorite places if we can get a site in the bottom next to the river we get poor to no reception but if we are unlucky enough to have to stay up the hill we can get 15 or 20 channels. Frankly I'll give up the boob tube every time for the nicer site. That's what videos are made for. PS we get virtually no cell phone service in the bottom either and we love it.

bsmith0404 · 05-11-2014, 05:36 AM

What I have found with my TV is that the scan will indicate channels found, then I have to tweak the direction to actually see them. It is amazing how 1 or two indent positions on the dial will make a channel viewable vs. static. What we typically do is set up, scan, then adjust the direction to watch the channel we want. Takes me back to when I was a kid living out in the country. Anytime we changed the channel we changed the little box on top of the TV that adjusted the direction the antenna pointed. We had little stickers on the box that showed where to set the antenna for all 5 channels we got

You can't just set the antenna in one spot and expect to see all of the channels, in most cases if you can get 2-3 with it in the same spot you're doing good.

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