2017 jayco eagle antenna

[Dave and Rainy]

Hi all,
Hope someone can answer this one for me!
We just purchased a 2017 Eagle 320rlts travel trailer. Like all new eagles, it's equipped with the winegard bat wing antenna, ( supposed to be a improved design) with is virtually worthless to pull in any distant stations. We have thought about retrofitting the older sensor crank up stle antenna, (on antennas, size does matter) but thought of another idea. HAS anyone ever installed a residential antenna with rotor on a temp. tripod on the roof with maybe a 4ft. mast?? I have a older sat. tripod, weighted with cushion pads, that accepts a common 1" mast. The question is, knowing that the antenna would indeed pull in weaker stations, where would I input the downlead from the antenna?? Can I plug it into the cable input at the docking center on the trailer, or would I have to run coax and splitter to each tv, which would be kind of messy. Hope this makes sense, sure would love to here from anyone whos tried this!
Thanks,
Dave

[64osby]

My understanding is the cable connection will allow use of a non amp antenna.

You might have a great antenna, but to hook it up and tear it down doesn't sound too fun if you have to carry all the stuff up and down every time.

Read somewhere recently where a guy had two hooks that supported a 16' pole that he attached his antenna to.

[norty1]

It would work but why?

[blujay40]

We use our TT primarily for seasonal snowbirding for at least 4 months at a time and if the DW missed her soaps for that long, it would probably be the LAST year we went!

Up until now, I have just changed the service address on our DirecTV service and used a tripod setup to get locals and such but that also invokes a 30.00/month increase in my bill because of higher "communication" taxes and regional sports fees that I don't have at home. So I have wanted to try and come up with a different solution that not only lets the DW record/watch her soaps, but saves me the 30.00/month as well.

I have an AM21 that I can use to receive/record OTA with my DirecTV genie, but need a better antenna than the Winegard Rayzar that came on our 2017 Eagle. It does great in more open areas but in the RV park where we stay, we are surrounded by taller 5er's, Toy haulers, and Class A's that really knock down my ability to receive OTA from the stations that are about 35 miles away.

So I have thought about strapping a PVC pipe to my ladder that's long enough to clear the surrounding RV's and mount an Antennas Direct DB4 UHF antenna I have in the garage to it. Since we stay for months at a time, I don't look at this as any more work than if I were to strap a flag pole to the ladder instead. I'm just not sure about the rotor part being all that feasible but in my instance, that's not necessary since all the local stations down there broadcast from the same direction.

[Dave and Rainy]

Thanks guys, never thought about clamping a post to the ladder, sounds like a plan. I assumed that the cable input on the trailer was just a pass thru, and thanks for helping my suspicion. I want to increase my ota ability, because the Myrtle Beach state park has so many trees that satellite is virtually useless, and just by trial test here at home, the new winegard razor antenna is almost useless, compared to my older crank up sensor antenna. So the thought was to try one of the lightweight deep fringe antennas with a bit of elevation on it, which would do better
Thanks
Dave

[norty1]

We camp at MB SP and the OTA signal is pretty strong for the Florence, SC channels. You may be ok without it.

The ladder mounted antenna may help, you gotta keep mama happy!

[Dave and Rainy]

We are usually in loop 1 at the park, and we can get the Florence station and wway, sometimes wnbf but a lot of pixelation when the trees sway, that's with the older style sensor antenna, no telling what will happen with the tiny RAZR antenna