HD tv antenna

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Lawrence M

Well-known member
Joined
May 7, 2015
Posts
144
On my 1998 vintage coach I have crankup tv antennae that was pretty standard for the time.
Does anybody know if I can update it to an HD antennae by just changing out the head. I really don't want to pull out the old antenna. I believe th a t would create issues for me.
If I could get a link or even a picture I would be grateful.
 
There's not really any such thing as an HD antenna. Antennas are designed to work with a specific frequency range, but they don't know digital from analog, despite many advertising slogans.  The old one on your rig is probably a VHF antenna (likely the WIndegard antenna we call a "batwing"), which should give you reception from any station transmitting on VHF channels. But a lot of stations moved to the UHF channels with the advent of digital TV, so improving your UHF reception might be all you need. If your antenna is the batwing antenna, you can get the "Wingman" add-on that makes it a little more directional but does wonders for UHF reception. It basically snaps on -- just follow the easy directions.
 
If your antenna is the batwing antenna, you can get the "Wingman" add-on that makes it a little more directional but does wonders for UHF reception. It basically snaps on -- just follow the easy directions
.

Only if the "batwing" type antenna is the Winegard Sensar brand. The Winegard Wingman won't snap into place on other brands of batwing type antennas, e.g. Braund. But most RVs do have the Winegard brand of antenna, so it may well work.

You can also replace the head on the mast, with a new Winegard Sensar IV (which includes good UHF reception), or a "Jack" antenna from King Controls. Another popular upgrade is the Antennacraft Mini-state, which is a fixed mount (no mast to raise/lower)
 
I am about the dumbest person you will ever find when it comes to this subject but I went to our local radio shack and talked to a young fellow there and he suggested an HD antennae for our house. So I ordered it and wow what an amazing picture.
I am so confused about what I need for the motor home now that I have received some answers I am even more confused.
Help!      Is UHF HD?
 
Are you having reception problems now?

Most TV's have diagnostics in the menu.

Select signal strength and if you are above 80 then no need to do anything with your antenna.

With most digital stations I have been near when travelling I do not even need to raise my batwing to get a good steady signal.

That is the neat thing about digital you usually get a good steady picture or no picture at all.
 
Lawrence, that antenna is just tuned for the UHF band which is where almost all digital TV is.  UHF isn't HD or SD, but the signals that most stations are broadcasting today are HD.
 
Trust me on this.. The kid at Radio Shack does not know a television from a radio and has no idea of how antennas work.

Any time a sales person recommends an HD antenna..RUN, do not walk RUN away he is going to rip you off!!!

Why? Because there is no such thing..All antennas are radio antennas..That is the only kind (that is of the antennas we humans use.. Antenna on insects are something else)  ALL antennas are Radio antennas.

Televison, Be it digital or analog, is the "Intellegence" that is imposed upon the radio wave (Modulated) but that is technical

In the old days (Say 1998) Television was broadcaston carrier channels 2 through 69
Today the low channels (2-6) are not so common but the UHF ones (14-69) are still very much in use.. That's where MOST digital TV is.

Adding the batwing (if you have a winegard) will improve UHF performance.. THe Batwing is already the best VHF with one possible no longer made exception that used to go on airstreams before THOR bought it up and switchd to Winegard.

Adding the SENSOR PRO indoor module gives me better reception from a station 45 miles away than I get from the Cable company!!!!!!
 
Ok John
Now you can run from this.
When our local stations upgraded to HD signals or whatever they are called. My wife and I lost the signal and our reception was poor if we got it at all.
So I went to see the young fellow at Radio Shack and for 100 bucks he ordered me a HD antennae . I crawled up on the roof and installed it and adjust the direction while my wife flipped through the channels.
When I got off the roof and saw the results I could not be live it. It was better or equal to what the neighbors were getting on cable. Except ours was free.
I really don't think it was called for what you said about the young fellow at Radio Shack he saved me a lot of money as I did not want to buy cable as I don't watch a lot of TV.
So do me a favor and don't comment on my post in the future you are very rude.
 
The TV stations started broadcasting in HD, so if you have/had an old tv you would not receive the signal or would receive it poorly, if you have updated your TVs you will receive the HD signal on your OLD RV antenna

I have a 95 Win Brave, with the old winegard antenna I can receive all the HD channels on my NEW TVs in my RV

There is no such thing as a HD antenna'

 
I would like to thank everyone except John for giving some input to my Tv in my motor home.
Not being a technical person when it comes to TVs I was able to sort out my problem.
I started to remove the components one by one. A VCR and two little boxes that ran between them and the TV. One was a Audiovox converter that I guess converted the VCR signal to a cable signal. The other box had channel 3and 4 on it and a switch to select from one channel to the other.
I hooked the cable direct to the TV and it works great. I upgraded the TV to an HD.
Now without the converter I am unable to use the VCR as I have to run the multi cable with the red yellow and white to the TV and than it works also.
One problem solved and one to go. Has anybody run cables from the upper console to the lower dash area?
 
cj7365 said:
The TV stations started broadcasting in HD, so if you have/had an old tv you would not receive the signal or would receive it poorly, if you have updated your TVs you will receive the HD signal on your OLD RV antenna

I have a 95 Win Brave, with the old winegard antenna I can receive all the HD channels on my NEW TVs in my RV

There is no such thing as a HD antenna'
I just went to Google images and there seems to be a lot of them.
Also Amazon has a lot of HD antennas for sale?
Your right once I got rid of a couple things my Tv works great.
I upgraded my all my tv's sometime ago.
 
ALL  TV antennas are HD TV antennas.  Any TV antenna advertised as an HDTV antenna is correct - it is!  Any good ole 50 year old antenna will also work well for HD.  If a new "HD" antenna fixed your reception at home, then your old antenna was shot and needed replaced.  Note also that old "analog" TV's require a converter box to show digital signals.  If you added the converter when you replaced the antenna, the converter may have been all you really needed.
 
I'm going to stand with John on this.  There is no such thing as a 'Digital Antenna'.  100% marketing malarkey designed to fool the rubes into replacing perfectly good antennas. 

Did you replace the feed wire when you put up the new 'digital' antenna?  Did you strip the wire back to expose uncorroded wire when you hooked it up?  Was it aimed in even a slightly different direction than the old antenna?  Any of these could be the reason for your better result.

When I got my first digital TV I made an antenna out of two 36 inch pieces of wire.  It worked perfectly fine.
 
grashley said:
ALL  TV antennas are HD TV antennas.  Any TV antenna advertised as an HDTV antenna is correct - it is!  Any good ole 50 year old antenna will also work well for HD.  If a new "HD" antenna fixed your reception at home, then your old antenna was shot and needed replaced.  Note also that old "analog" TV's require a converter box to show digital signals.  If you added the converter when you replaced the antenna, the converter may have been all you really needed.
Good points.
And you maybe right the old antenna might have been bad. I did have the converter with the old tv's. But not with the new ones.
 
8Muddypaws said:
I'm going to stand with John on this.  There is no such thing as a 'Digital Antenna'.  100% marketing malarkey designed to fool the rubes into replacing perfectly good antennas. 

Did you replace the feed wire when you put up the new 'digital' antenna?  Did you strip the wire back to expose uncorroded wire when you hooked it up?  Was it aimed in even a slightly different direction than the old antenna?  Any of these could be the reason for your better result.

When I got my first digital TV I made an antenna out of two 36 inch pieces of wire.  It worked perfectly fine.
Rubes?
 
This is really fun!  Digital signals over the air are better than cable (or satellite) signals unless you are purchasing HD service.  That is because the cable companies are de-grading the signal unless you buy the HD.  Over the air the signals are great.

Antennas are unique.  I was raised where only VHF signals existed, so we had an antenna designed for VHL only.  The antenna we had would be very poor for UHF.  Today most TV signals are UHF and the wingman add on to the existing antenna on your rig is an excellent device.  All the hype regarding HD antennas is BULL.  A quality UHF antenna is what you need.





 
Lawrence M said:
I would like to thank everyone except John for giving some input to my Tv in my motor home.
Not being a technical person when it comes to TVs I was able to sort out my problem.
I started to remove the components one by one. A VCR and two little boxes that ran between them and the TV. One was a Audiovox converter that I guess converted the VCR signal to a cable signal. The other box had channel 3and 4 on it and a switch to select from one channel to the other.
I hooked the cable direct to the TV and it works great. I upgraded the TV to an HD.
Now without the converter I am unable to use the VCR as I have to run the multi cable with the red yellow and white to the TV and than it works also.
One problem solved and one to go. Has anybody run cables from the upper console to the lower dash area?
I've run cables down the front 'A' pillar on several motorhomes over the years. The decorative cover is usually removable, making access fairly easy. Split windshields also usually have a decorative trim cover in the center than can also be a wire routing option.

John and the others are quite correct about so called "HD" antennas. They only exist in the manufacturers marketing departments. Antennas are designed to receive any RF signals transmitted on a specific band or bands of frequencies, period. Those carrier signals can have what ever information imbedded on them ("modulated") that the sender wishes. Whether it's analog or digital information, the antenna itself does not care one way or the other, it just passes whatever it receives on to the receiver. It's the receiver's job to sort it out and present the results to your TV screen, not the antenna's.
 
Yes as this thread goes on there are a lot of people agreeing with John. And I now even agree with John.
Everybody has made that point quite well.
John could have said what everybody else has said and I would have thanked him like I am thanking everybody else for setting me on the straight and narrow. After all is this not an avenue to seek advice.
Or should we all be aggressive and fire at everything we don't agree with.
I believe John may have issues relating to people, the moderators may not agree with this. But as I stated in the first post that I am very ignorant in the matter of TV signals. I apologise for this I will no longer ask questions and upset anybody.
I found that I was attacked for my ignorance on the subject and the fellow who helped me was also attacked.
 
Lawrence,

The rube remark was not aimed at anybody and especially not you.  You may have been taken advantage of or you may have actually needed a new antenna.  You're happy with your result and that is what it is.

"I have seen the rubes and he is us".  That was my attempt at humor.
 
Lawrence M said:
Ok John
Now you can run from this.
When our local stations upgraded to HD signals or whatever they are called. My wife and I lost the signal and our reception was poor if we got it at all.
So I went to see the young fellow at Radio Shack and for 100 bucks he ordered me a HD antennae . I crawled up on the roof and installed it and adjust the direction while my wife flipped through the channels.
When I got off the roof and saw the results I could not be live it. It was better or equal to what the neighbors were getting on cable. Except ours was free.
I really don't think it was called for what you said about the young fellow at Radio Shack he saved me a lot of money as I did not want to buy cable as I don't watch a lot of TV.
So do me a favor and don't comment on my post in the future you are very rude.

Question: What did you have for an antenna BEFORE you went to Radio Shack.

My point is there is no such thing as an HD antenna.. Just Radio Antennas.. Now for a fact some of them are better than others...  When my parents moved from Tekonsha to Union City (MI) we put up a 100' Tower with Channel Master's biggest signal grabber (An antenna dang near bigger than my RV  This thing is over 17 feet long and the longest element is 3 meters (about 10 feet)

We could see stations 100 miles away and more

And when the world (well country) Went HD.. That antenna still works.

Technically the only difference between an HD antenna and a standard one is the price..

That said..Radio shack sells two "Flying Saucer" antennas.. ONE is labeled HD and yes it is better than the other one... So how does this fit what I'm saying?  Well they originally started slling the HD one, without the HD label, back in the 1970's  IT was made by RCA... it is a DIRECTIONAL antenna.  They started selling the non-hd one (Omindirctional) later.  Back in the 70s of course it it did not say HD on it.. And I do not know who makes it today.
 

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