Will I need a new antenna?

Will I need a new digital antenna now?  I have a digital TV, so I don't need the converter box.  My RV is a 2001 model, so I am assuming the roof mounted antenna is an analog one.  Any ideas?  Thanks.

1953camper said:

Will I need a new digital antenna now?  I have a digital TV, so I don't need the converter box.  My RV is a 2001 model, so I am assuming
the roof mounted antenna is an analog one.  Any ideas?  Thanks.

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No, you do not need a new antenna. The one you have on your roof will work fine.

1953camper said:

Will I need a new digital antenna now?  I have a digital TV, so I don't need the converter box.  My RV is a 2001 model, so I am assuming the roof mounted antenna is an analog one.  Any ideas?  Thanks.

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There is no such thing as a digital antenna. An antenna only cares about the frequencies used and that doesn't change with digital TV.
   

The only thing I would do is add a Wingman to your antenna if it's a conventional Winegard Batwing.

SCVJeff said:

The only thing I would do is add a Wingman to your antenna if it's a conventional Winegard Batwing.

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Seems to be an UHF amplifier of some type according to this.

Thanks very much, folks. 

Many of the digital channels will be UHF instead of VHF, so UHF reception becomes more important in the digital tv age.  In addition, an antenna that was marginaly ok on analog VHF (snowy picture) may be insufficient to receive a usable digital signal.

Facts: My motor home has a Winegard Sensar (The standard Batwing)

I get digital television just fine.. Currently 2 stations (plus their sub channels) though the receiver senses more they are not strong enough. If I re-point I may get more but one of the ones I have now is wife's #1 favorite station so .....

The Wingman is not an aplifier. it is a "UHF Director Array"  it is a passive (means it consumes no power) part of the antenna, an applifier is an ACTIVE part (Consumes power)

How the wingman works is kind of technical but if you were to look at the antenna from above without the wingman the pattern of the antenna is a Figure 8, with the Kind of like this (the dashes are the wings) -8-

What the Wingman does is take from one of the lobes of the 8 and push the antenna more in one direction.  So you get something more like this

_0_

ANd that's a lot farther out.. NOTE that due to the limits of ASCII drawing this is a log way from accurate

I know exactly what you are talking about , John. The "reception lobes" of the antenna just narrow, i.e more directional. This is good and bad. It is good when you are pointing at the transmitter tower, a bit stronger signal when you are in a congested area. The actual signal strength gain is minimal.

  The Bad,... when you are searching, in the channel search mode,  for available signals in the area, it may not pick up many stations that may very well be usable. That is after turning the antenna and search agaiin.

  I just installed a new Sensor antenna (plain)  yesterday but did not opt for any highly-directional wingman option..

  FWIW, TV watching is not my main concern, it's just a habit.

  Oh well, my 2cents worth.

carson FL



 

THIS is a Wingman (the 3 elements to the right of the batwing).

Jeff, good pix.  did you read my pro's and con's in my post.  What do you think..

carson Fl

Carson: Yes, it is a fact that you might miss a singnal behind the antenna.

However my DTV-Pal + is nice, it "remembers" when you do a channel search, so do somethign like this

Pint "East" (3:00 relative to the motor home) and search,
Point "north" (12:00) and search
Point South (6:00) and search
Point west (9:00) and search

Pick the direction I got the best results, or the station I want most (7 here) and choose that station and PEAK

Then manually delete stations I don't want, and remember where to point for the others.

NOTES: (9:00 position is not truly accessable (You can hit about 8:30 and 9:30) 
  The pointer is 3 hours "Ahead" of the antenna, that is when it points to 6:00 (Rear of the rig) antenna is pointed 3:00 (right side)

RV Roamer said:

Many of the digital channels will be UHF instead of VHF, so UHF reception becomes more important in the digital tv age.  In addition, an antenna that was marginaly ok on analog VHF (snowy picture) may be insufficient to receive a usable digital signal.

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I am not sure, but I thought I heard somewhere that there is no more TV in the VHF range over the air (not digital or analog). There's a lot of other uses for those freqs. Of course, on cable it can still be as it always was.

BTW, I have not even tried to look at a TV sig over the air for years.

Almost everyone has moved off of the low VHF channels (2-6) because impulse noise tears up DTV reception there.  But there are a couple of exceptions around the country.

A fair number of stations have elected to return to  their High-VHF (7-13) channels.

A complete list can be found at FCC DTV List

Lou Schneider said:

A fair number of stations have elected to return to  their High-VHF (7-13) channels.

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I assume the FCC won't allow that in areas where they could use a few more freqs for more important stuff than TV. These days, it's rather difficult to get a new freq for public safety, cell phones  and other such stuff.

BTW, did I hear that you were once a radio tech in San Francisco?  I have been for the last 30 years.  I now work three nights  per week in SF's 9-1-1 center. Its been busy lately as they are now making a lot of changes. All these special projects get approved when the economy is good but the work always seems to start when the economy is poor. Great job security!  We are not only remodeling the dispatch floor (everything moved out and back in), but also new Motorola HPD (High Performance Data) & IV&D (Interrogated Voice and Data) added to our 8 remote site, two site (by Motorloa's terminology  which does NOT mean  remote site, but entire subsystem) 27 / 8 channel trunking Simulcast system. When the economy was good, I had a sinecure. Not any more!

Radio these days is more like a bunch of computer systems. The technology is difficult to keep up with in my old age! And my Motorola acronym buffer is very overloaded!

Thanks for the chart!

Lou Schneider said:

Almost everyone has moved off of the low VHF channels (2-6) because impulse noise tears up DTV reception there.  But there are a couple of exceptions around the country.

A fair number of stations have elected to return to  their High-VHF (7-13) channels.

A complete list can be found at FCC DTV List

Click to expand...

And the funny thing about those folks moving BACK to their 'V' channels are finding severe coverage issues in the suburban areas where the eyeballs are. In fact several have filed an emergency STA with the FCC to return to their temporary UHF channels. See THIS

carson said:

Jeff, good pix.  did you read my pro's and con's in my post.  What do you think..

carson Fl

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Yeah, you're correct that it may require a tad more finesses when pointing the antenna, but it's not as directional as folks may think. Don't know if you saw THIS comparison test on my batwing with & without the Wingman. It has moderate forward gain, not extreme. Likewise it's not ridiculous on F/S & F/B rejection causing you to completely miss station scans.  I would rather have the insurance of an extra 3db of forward gain and fight tweaking a workable path than not having anything. It's a radio guy thing.

One thing I have noticed, and the only people that would know are those that designed the ATSC receiver chip, is that when I do a scan I see the TV pick up channels that I can verify through other means that really do exist where I am pointing the antenna, the TV catches them on a scan, but they are too weak to recover a usable picture. No point, just interesting.

My RV trailer is a 83 Aljo with roof antenna, whatever came with it back in 1983.  Using the digital box purchased at Walmart, and set up to the roof antenna I have great TV ... 

We're on the south side of Milwaukee, bout 15 miles from most of the transmitters, and we receive nearly all of the digital stations without even raising the batwing antenna.  No addons needed, just the converter.  Fortunately, most of the stations have their transmitters located in the same area on the north side and we're parked facing west