Digital antenna

[VWestgate]

Hello
I have owned my 2015 Ss Agile now for 3 years. We go away every winter camping for 3 months. In all this time we have never been able to watch tv stations! We replaced the digital antenna ( leaked, wet inside of ) with the original equipment antenna by the dealership we purchased our van from but the television stations still do not work!! Any suggestions or alternatives? Since it is still under warranty I feel frustrated to say the least that in a van this expensive it cannot provide simple television stations???
Help

 

[darsben]

There is no such thing as a digital antenna. MY Southwind has the original pre-digital era antenna and it receives all stations just fine.
That being said it might be;
you have a signal booster somewhere that is not turned on.
You have a bad wire somewhere
The installation is defective

It would Be helpful to know what kind of antenna you have now.
Is it omni-directional or can you turn it to optimize signal.
How far are you from the signal tower?

 

[Larry N.]

Darsben is right -- digital antennas don't exist. Whether the received signal is analog or digital, a given antenna works the same way with the same frequency (channel number, old analog style). Most RVs that use Winegard antennas also have a hookup for cable that feeds the TV input also, and that usually comes through a wall plate that has a coax connetion on it, often a 12V power jack, and a small push button switch, plus a small green light. That button cycles the connection between cable and over the air. If the green light isn't on, it's set for cable, and you can push the button to change it to off the air, in which case the green light will come on.

You may already know this, but assuming you have digital TVs, then in each new location you have to tell the TV to search for all available channels before it will display them. If the antenna can be raised and rotated, then raising it gets better reception, and rotating it (when you may need to do another channel scan) can improve reception more, once you find which direction the station antennas are from you.

 

[John From Detroit]

There are several companies selling "Digital" antennas. I recall attending an FMCA rally where they were selling 20 dollar bow-tie antennas for 99 dollars..  Need I say more.. 20 bucks at Radio shack got the exact same set top antenna. they added a 300 to 70 ohm balun (about a dollar) and a few Zip ties sna sold it to RVers for 99 dollars.  Now you know what digital antennas are RIP OFF.

What's worse that antenna is not as good as the Winegard Sensar III it was often replacing. The station I'm watching now it would not pick up.

Best antenna. per independent lab tests

Winegard Sensar IV or .. with the addition of the Wingman the II or III

Sensar PRO for the inside module..

NOTE: TVs must be ATSC digital capable (most modern wide screens are anything sold since 2006 should be)

Procedure
Crank it up
Touch button (top) on Sensar Pro till it shuts off. then once more to turn it on to auto-scan mode.

It will scan for digital stations and show you the strongest one on the bottom display top display shows how strong.. SLOWLY rotate antenna for strongest signal.

Now go to TV's menu and do a channel scan, make sure it is set to ANTENNA not cable.

IN some cases I may choose to peak on a lesser signal.. To do that

Find a station that is breaking up on TV... Go to MENU and MANUAL CHANNEL AD
You should see a carrier channel number displayed.. IE if tuned to channel 7-1 in Detroit I think you see 41 displayed.> THERE WILL BE NO -X or .X just a one or 2 digit channel number.

Push the top button on the sensdar pro again (or 2x more) and then use the bottom UP/DOwn buttons to find that same channel number.. Re-peak.  Then Re-scan the TV

USUALLY (not always) TV stations tend to "Cluster" transmitter wise
WHy?  Height is Might at VHF/UHF and beyond. so the higher the ground. the wider the footprint.

As an eample.. Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, and Grand Rapids MICHIGAN all broadcast from Gun Lake (Wayland).  Most "Detroit" Transmitters are in Southfield, MI.

YOu put 'em on the high ground. IN some cases they may even share a tower.

Finally.. an app for your smart phone.. WINEGARD of course.


Finally.. Some areas.. Well each TV station has a "Footprint" and some places in the USA are not stepped upon by Television.. So if you are in one of those "Un-Stomped" places. you won't be watching less you invest in a Sat Receiver or cable.

 

[Rene T]

Welcome to the forum. If you still have a warrantee, take it back to them and have them figure it out.

Have you seen one of these someplace in the rig?

https://www.amazon.com/Winegard-RV-7042-Plate-Power-Supply/dp/B000GGL4CG

 

[VWestgate]

Thank you for reply Rene
I plan to go back (second time ) The antenna I have (second one same as original equipment is Sole omni directional antenna) the problem I think in part is that these antennas do not rotate they are fixed on roof??

 

[Alfa38User]

The Sol? antenna does not appear to be a very good choice for an RV as it appears to be fixed (but is omni-directional).

 

[lynnmor]

Omni-directional means equally poor reception in all directions.  ;D

 

[John From Detroit]

Omni-directional means equally poor reception in all directions.  ;D

You can say that again so I quoted you.

Some facts. 3dB gain means 2x the power or about 1.414 the range (Square root of 2)

I'm not sure what the gain factor is on the batwing (Which is nearly bi-directional on VHF) over omni but I'm guessing at the minimum it's 6DB. due to the design.  that's sqrt(6) the range. or about 2 1/4 (rounded seriously) I find mine is good to about 60 miles give or take a bit.

NOTE also if there is nothign in the first two rings on teh Winegard App (Touch antenna) odds are you won't be happy no matter what you have.

Want more range.. Well you can get higher gain antennas but they are NOT designed for RV use. they go atop a tower.. How tall a tower.....

My Dad's houses  were in the 3rd and 4th (Out of range) ranges on the winegard app.  But we had a 2 story with full attic hous and a mast above that which worked fairly well.. Then later on the 2nd hose a 100' Tower with Channel Master's #2 signal sucker as I recall (may have been #1) Good out to over 100 miles on VHF low. about 100 on VHF high and UHF.

Not practical for RV.  Oh I proved the Height is Might myself. Too long a story to post here today.

 

[egalt]

Silly question maybe...but are you in an area that you cannot receive regular Over the air tv reception?  Most of the time when we are in the mountains, we get nothing.

 

[Fogetty]

If you know the zipcode for your location, antennaweb.org can show you which direction to the local stations.