AntennaTek reception

k-f-Indiana

Well-known member
It's really nice to be able to call on you guys' experience with questions, as we have no experience with these new RV issues. I haven't been able to get involved in any of your threads, as I seem to have only questions, no answers. Maybe that will change in the future.
We are getting only 2 channels on our Jensen TV, even after scans in every direction. A helpful fellow camper told me about what he called an extender for the antenna from Camping World that likely would increase reception to 6 - 8 channels. We ordered the Winegard Wingman. It would not install on our AntennaTek , Model 500 antenna. I am now aware it is not compatible with AntennaTek. Does anyone know if there is a similar product for ours? We are not interested in spending a lot of time watching TV, so not interested in a satellite at this time. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Karen, there was a post recently about that very thing. In a nut shell, the digital signal is not as forgiving as the analog signal we were used to. We could always watch a snowy picture. No more. You have a signal or you don't. Most of us don't. As far as the Antenna Tek having an adapter for their antenna, the answer is no. Antenna Tek said that they feel the current antenna is picking up as good of a signal as it is ever going to, including adding what they feel is a useless retrofit. Many RV parks have cable hookups. Satellite is another option.
Wish I had better news for you.

Peace
Dave
 

truknutt

Committed Member
Welcome to the club, Karen. Like you, many of us have also found that the Wingman will not work with our Antenna Tek system, I never knew there was such an animal called Antenna Tek. I read somewhere that Antenna Tek states that their units don't need additional equipment.

As far as locating those elusive channels, cheat a little and look at all the other antennas in your campground. Notice which way the majority are pointing (there are always that 10% that are 180 degrees out!). Point yours in the same direction and then assuming you have setup the tv to receive from antenna, start your Jensen's automatic search.

Hopefully this will work for you. If not, just pop in a DVD and enjoy..television isn't all it's cracked up to be nowdays anyway!
 

k-f-Indiana

Well-known member
I forgot to ask. Has anyone tried a signal booster? A friend suggested one that you can get from Radio Shack. Will these work on digital signals?
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
I forgot to ask. Has anyone tried a signal booster? A friend suggested one that you can get from Radio Shack. Will these work on digital signals?
The existing antenna has an amplifier built in. I don't know what trailer you have but your TV should be connected to a wall jack. Eiterh in the bedroom or Living Room, there should be a wall plate that has a little black button on it. Make sure this button is pushed and a red led light is glowing. This is the amplifier for the antenna. When hooked up to cable, this light must be switched off. Aside from that, I have found that the Antenna Tek is every bit as good as the Winegard. I've had both. Happy hunting.
 

SilverRhino

Well-known member
The existing antenna has an amplifier built in. I don't know what trailer you have but your TV should be connected to a wall jack. Eiterh in the bedroom or Living Room, there should be a wall plate that has a little black button on it. Make sure this button is pushed and a red led light is glowing. This is the amplifier for the antenna. When hooked up to cable, this light must be switched off. Aside from that, I have found that the Antenna Tek is every bit as good as the Winegard. I've had both. Happy hunting.


Read your thread .......when hooked to cable and watching regular TV, not cable, turning on the amplifier does not help...it makes the picture worse. If I were to disconnect from the cable feed, then the amplifier would help the picture? Is that correct? :confused: Previous rig it didn't seem to matter if amp was used when hooked to cable...no effect either way.
 

truknutt

Committed Member
Read your thread .......when hooked to cable and watching regular TV, not cable, turning on the amplifier does not help...it makes the picture worse. If I were to disconnect from the cable feed, then the amplifier would help the picture? Is that correct? :confused: Previous rig it didn't seem to matter if amp was used when hooked to cable...no effect either way.


Rhino,

Did you tell the TV that you were using the Antenna before you turned the booster on? If not, it still thinks you are using the cable tv signal.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
As for me I think the government is in bed with the pay tv industry. Why would they otherwise mandate a system that works poorly for free over one you have to pay for, when we had a working system. Even though we have Direct TV through our Winegard satellite system we still want to get the local stations (wherever we are) so we can keep up with local news/weather. Most of the time the stations we get are iffy fading in and out with the digital. Never happened that way with analog. Just goes to show you that newer isn't always better. FCC ...you are full of idiots.
 

SmokeyBare

Well-known member
I ask Antenna Tek if they had an attachment like the Winegard company has with it's WingMan attachment. Their answer back in an Email was NO... they felt their product did not need any help.

I'm sure in the coming year... with the switch over complete to digital... the complaint's will roll in to every RV Antenna Company. As Cookie stated... Digital is very un-forgiving... it either works... or it doesn't.

Yes I tried adding an additional signal booster to our Living room TV... which of course is already boosted by an Amplifier which is located in the wall behind the Bed room TV. It did not help at all in our case. I also ran a cable directly from the bed room booster to the living room TV... and that too didn't help pull a better signal in... or improve the quality of the picture... which tells me even though I have 2 Olevia tv's... they both are not equal in their reception.

True enough the booster or amplifier for the antenna... needs to be turned OFF... when connected to a Cable TV System. When you use a Dish system... the signal runs through different cables so the amplifier does not matter if its ON or OFF.

One solution might be to purchase a Winegard Amplified UHF, VHF Omnidirectional Antenna. These are not directional based... but are round... so there is no Pointing. LINK>> http://www.winegard.com/mobile/roadstar.php

Jim... I agree with your thoughts... Sure did mess up folks with this Digital switch over.... there are lots of people out there who once was able to get over the Air Reception... and now are out of luck.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Read your thread .......when hooked to cable and watching regular TV, not cable, turning on the amplifier does not help...it makes the picture worse. If I were to disconnect from the cable feed, then the amplifier would help the picture? Is that correct? :confused: Previous rig it didn't seem to matter if amp was used when hooked to cable...no effect either way.
This is a wild guess. I'd bet the antenna amplifier is wired wrong. Here is a link to the correct wiring http://www.winegard.com/kbase/upload/2451808.pdf
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
This is the craziest thing about the digital television. I turn my Olevia TV in the living room and it gets several channels. Then without changing anything I turn the Polaroid TV in the bedroom and get several channels. The puzzling thing is they do not tune in the same stations. Some stations one TV receives the other TV will not receive. Moving the antenna changes nothing. Another reception anomaly.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Jim, I have 2 Vizio's and they do the same thing. Tuner quality? My 32" is 3 yrs old and the 19" in the bedroom is new. The 19" is a much more feature packed LCD.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
Sounds to me like the government wants us all to buy new TVs. Maybe they should give each of us $2000.00 so we can all get new hi-tech televisions.
 

nscaler2

Well-known member
FCC ...you are full of idiots.
Jim,
They are not idiots. They are greedy politicians on the take. I agree with you. The politicians in the FCC had to have been paid off. This is not a real improvement unless you are on cable or satellite and even then in situations like yours, it still doesn't work. :mad:
 

Theresau

Well-known member
My understanding is that the FCC needed the analog station space - reason for the need to go to digital. Quote from FCC:
"Congress mandated the conversion to all-digital television broadcasting, also known as the digital television (DTV) transition, because all-digital broadcasting will free up frequencies for public safety communications (such as police, fire, and emergency rescue). Also, digital is a more efficient transmission technology that allows broadcast stations to offer improved picture and sound quality, as well as offer more programming options for consumers through multiple broadcast streams (multicasting). In addition, some of the freed up frequencies will be used for advanced commercial wireless services for consumers."

Digital is really quite nice but it can act like satellite if there is a storm and it appears much more touchy than analog. The multi-tasking can be really cool too - frequently this can include a 24 hour weather station.

I live in SE Michigan and can get in about 22 digital stations (a number of these are HD) here at home - I have satellite but wanted to see what I could get in using an antennae.

I purchased a digital antennae at Walmart - when I want to see local HD (I haven't converted HD satellite yet...) - I change to the antennae. (This is a Samsung TV...similar to the one in the Bighorn.)

You can look up what is playing via a channel list which can give you a guide of the day's showings...

In my travel trailer I would do similarly but with the antennae booster on - usually was able to get in quite a few digital stations (and again, some in HD).

Bighorn is supposed to be shipped around the 16th - I'll give the antennae a try then.
 

k-f-Indiana

Well-known member
The existing antenna has an amplifier built in. I don't know what trailer you have but your TV should be connected to a wall jack. Eiterh in the bedroom or Living Room, there should be a wall plate that has a little black button on it. Make sure this button is pushed and a red led light is glowing. This is the amplifier for the antenna. When hooked up to cable, this light must be switched off. Aside from that, I have found that the Antenna Tek is every bit as good as the Winegard. I've had both. Happy hunting.

Ray, Thanks for the advice. We found the amplifier button on the wall plate in the bedroom (where there is no TV) today, pushed it, scanned, and got 12 channels compared to 1 or none before, at home. Now know what to do at campground!

I'm going to try your method, "Truknutt", at the next campground stay, should make finding channels easier.

You guys are really appreciated!
 
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