Over the Air TV

supernan1414

Active Member
We have had our Big Horn for about 6 weeks now and all is going well except the over the air TV. We are only 20 miles from a major city (Syracuse, NY) on a seasonal site. Picture is absolutely beautiful but it freezes a lot. The signal meter says the signal is weak. WE upgraded from a 16 year old nuwa hitchhikker 5er and I thought the new rig would have a better antenea as the old one was not digital. Has anyone hooked up to a regular antenna?? How do you connect to the internal wiring?? We do have a satellite and I have filled out the Distant network paper work but would still like to get the local channels with out all the freezing.
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Hi Bill and Barbara,

It sounds to me like you are getting a fringe level signal at the antenna, despite your proximity to the transmitters. My sense is that you are not aimed optimally. Perhaps you are picking the signal up off the back side of the antenna. Consider rotating the antenna to optimize. If you've already done this, check with your neighbors in the same campground to see if they experience the same thing on the same channels.

If you do move forward with connecting a different external antenna, the easiest way to connect it to the coach is to connect it in the UDC to the CABLE input. Then on the TV antenna wall-plate inside the coach, make sure the red button and red light are OFF. Then on your TVs, be sure they are switched to AIR and let them automatically do a search.

Be sure to point the antenna towards the direction of the transmitters before doing the search on the TVs. Use this website to obtain compass headings from your current location to best aim your antenna.

Best of luck,

Jim
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
What's really annoying is that usually the program pixilates but the commercials don't. Does anyone know if the Winegard w/Wingman actually works better than the AntennaTek that's put on BH's? If so, is the base mount compatible for simply switching the antenna and not the base?

We don't watch enough TV at the BH to justify a satellite hook-up, but getting the local stuff, especially the news and a couple of programs we do catch, without pixilation, would be nice.
 

DougAndJudy

Well-known member
What's really annoying is that usually the program pixilates but the commercials don't. Does anyone know if the Winegard w/Wingman actually works better than the AntennaTek that's put on BH's? If so, is the base mount compatible for simply switching the antenna and not the base?

I just replaced our antenna tek wing antenna with a Winegard Sensar IV replacement head. It was about $53 at CW. It has a built in amp that uses the bedroom switch, same as the original. I just unpinned the original from the two square tubes that raise the antenna and the Winegard went right in its place. Attach the coax and you're done.

It seems to work well.
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Doug and Judy,

Did your Antenna Tek brand antenna fail or was it just underperforming? I am trying to gauge whether the Winegard really is better or not.

Thanks,

Jim
 

DougAndJudy

Well-known member
Doug and Judy,

Did your Antenna Tek brand antenna fail or was it just underperforming? I am trying to gauge whether the Winegard really is better or not.

Thanks,

Jim

Jim -

The antenna tek antenna was not working. When I ran a coax cable directly from the antenna to the antenna switch, the red amp light would not stay on. I believe there was a short in the antenna itself. That is the main reason I purchased the Winegard.

On a side note, I pulled all the coax connecters from the switch to the antenna and found that 2 cables did not even have coax connectors on them! The installers thought that gobs of electrical tape was a satisfactory substitute for putting the proper connectors on the cables. I put connectors on the ends and stuffed everything back up in the ceiling and the new antenna was working well!
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
I just replaced our antenna tek wing antenna with a Winegard Sensar IV replacement head. It was about $53 at CW. It has a built in amp that uses the bedroom switch, same as the original. I just unpinned the original from the two square tubes that raise the antenna and the Winegard went right in its place. Attach the coax and you're done.

It seems to work well.

Thanks for the info, Doug.
 

supernan1414

Active Member
One of the member of our club purchased the wingman accessory you add to the winegard antenna. It wouldn't fit on his Antenna Tek (he has a Sundance), sold it to a fellow that had a wingard. I just spoke with him and he says it has greatly improved the reception. I have looked at the Antenna Tek website and they don't have any add ons that will bring in a stronger signal. Think we will replace the head of antenna and add the wingman.
 

DougAndJudy

Well-known member
One of the member of our club purchased the wingman accessory you add to the winegard antenna. It wouldn't fit on his Antenna Tek (he has a Sundance), sold it to a fellow that had a wingard. I just spoke with him and he says it has greatly improved the reception. I have looked at the Antenna Tek website and they don't have any add ons that will bring in a stronger signal. Think we will replace the head of antenna and add the wingman.

The Winegard Sensar IV replacement head is the Winegard batwing plus a built-in wingman.
 

supernan1414

Active Member
I just looked at the Camping World online and it doesn't show the Sensar IV just the III and that dosen't have wingman and batwing together, possibly they have not upgrated the online catalog. I will be near a camping world soon and will it check out.
 

supernan1414

Active Member
Yes, thank You. I will order or pick one up and will let everyone know if it improves the signal strength. If it does we should recommend Heartland to install this antenna on the new units.
 

supernan1414

Active Member
Yes the amplifier in working. We get pretty good reception until the wind blows or it is raining heavy. Yesterday a very clear calm day we had almost no problems and had a beautiful HD picture. This morning we were trying to watch CBS and it started to pixalate, Bill moved the antenna a little and it was better. He is a channel surfer and trying to get a stronger signal. We are only 20 miles from Syracuse NY across a flat lake, no mountains. Before this digital TV we had excellent reception. The write up for the Senser IV looks like it is the new antenna Winegard is selling for better reception for digital TV. We will give it a try.
 

goldenbetty

goldenbetty
We had the same issues with the AntennaTek on our BH too. Frozen picture, VERY poor reception, if any, of some of the local channels. This is great to know that we can replace it with the Winegard Sensar IV. Thanks for sharing this information. When we are not setting up the sattelite for a 1-4 night stay, moving on to the next campground. it would really help not to have to setup the sattelite all of the time. Thanks a bunch.
 

supernan1414

Active Member
We have replaced the antenna tek with a winegard IV anteena. Very simple to do as JohnDar stated. It does seem to bring in a stronger signal, we are able to get more stations and we get very little freezing, very happy with it. I think you need to be fairly close to a transmitter. We broght the Big Horn home last weekend and we wanted to see if it would bring in service from Binghamton NY, about 50 miles. We are not even getting a ghost of a signal. We do live in a hilly area and that probably has something to do with, I understand the digital signal goes straight line.
 

cdbMidland

Past Michigan Chapter Leader
Re: Over the Air TV - weak signal strength

I spoke to some folks at the Tampa RV show and someone told me about a Radio Shack unit that he purchased and put into the living room. It plugged into 110-120V outlet. Does anyone know what this unit is called and about how much? I bought the Winguard Wingman, but it didn't help as the stations that I am having trouble with are VHF (channels 2-13). And, I went to the website and got the compass degrees. We are about 45 miles from both Tampa and Orlando - almost in a straight line between the two. Most stations get two bars out of five, but I experience a lot of no signal or picture freezing.
 
Last edited:

Terry H

Past Texas North Chapter Leader/Moderator
Staff member
Re: Over the Air TV - weak signal strength

Chuck,

I believe I told you about TV antenna amplifier, like this one. I did buy mine at Radio Shack. Walmart or Best Buy, etc should have them
 
Last edited:

Stinger381

Well-known member
Re: Over the Air TV - weak signal strength

I think the post about the loose connections is probably the culprit. Mine were loose too and I did a little tweaking in my cabling and got a much better signal. I'm still using the antennatek and it seems to be performing much better. The factory seems to use a cheaper wire than the RG60 wire that Satellite TV requires and it just goes to show you that using a better wire and getting really good solid connections will make all the difference in the world. I do have Dish that I use but when the weather gets bad I like to switch over to the Antenna and get the local weather reports. The antennatek has a stronger amp than the winegard products and works just as good if it's put on a good cable! That's my 2 cents!
 
Top