TV Reception

[Rick in CG,MN]

We are having trouble getting good digital TV reception in some areas. Is there a digital signal booster we can connect inside the camper??

[jdorant]

There should be a booster built in already (at least on my unit). It's a tiny little black button on the faceplate where the cable connects too. A green light comes on next to the button when its in use. There's also a website (http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/) that has maps of the channels you should be able to receive by zip code. I have found there is just no reception in most areas we travel too, but in our driveway we can get 26 channels with the booster on. I hope this helps.

[tlhdoc]

X2

[RoyBraddy]

There may two or three things you can check about.

The NEW DIGITAL NATL BROADCAST now operates on the low and high end UHF frequencies which really helps if your OTA BATWING antenna has the UHF add-on Dipoles. This gives you more gain for the UHF signals... Of course being higher in frequency you also have to be almost exactly centered on the transmitting signals from the local towns... Once you get tuned into one going through the scan-in process - see if you cant improve the signal by moving the batwing antenna a few degrees in either direction.

The WALL BOX the others was talking about looks like this photo. It usually has a cigarette lighter receptacle on it and a small push button switch to send power up to the BATWING anteena to engage the built-in preamp. You know it is working if you see a RED or GREEN light come on after you push the small switch. Your HDTV also needs to be using the type F connector on this wallbox insiead of the CABLE TV connector coming from the side of the trailer.



The BATWING should have an UHF set of dipoles mounted on it that looks like this


The one in the back is the standard BATWING antenna - the one in the front is the better UHF model version...

Some folks get great results by switching to a different UHF antenna called the JACK. This is made by KINGS CONTROLS and will operate from the same cable the BATWING and control wall mount in the trailer. Some of the new trailers are coming out with the JACK antenna installed which is not a crank-up version like the BATWING is. The Jack just rotates 360 degrees and doesn't protrude up beyond your roof mounted air conditioner install. You can also buy one that will snap right in place on your old OTA BATWING antenna locations and crank up and down just like the BATWING did.



When I am doing the initial scan mode using ANTENNA from the HDTV setup I will start the scan after pointing the antenna towards the local town transmitting the local Natl Broadcast channels. If I don't start seeing DIGITAL stations being counted during the first 15% of the scanning process i will stop the scan and move the antenna a few degrees one way or the other ans restart the scan process...

Like I mentioned you got be right on the transmission direction where with the old analog VHF signals you had some leeway in doing this... HDTV for the most part are perfect or nothing at at all- not like the old days where you would pick up a "SNOWY" picture and could move the antenna to peak it up. They do make some field strength meters you can find the signals and peak on that before starting the TV scan. I haven't had to use one of those yet.

Here on the East Coast I get excellent results using the OTA BATWING antenna with the UHF dipoles. We usually get 6-36 full HDTV (full screen) National Broadcast CBS-NBC-ABC-FOX-PBS transmissions just about everywhere we go. Haven't been beyond OKLA and TEXAS with our OFF-ROAD POPUP out west but with the towns further apart it probable is harder to do at many locations. Reception got so good for us we stopped bringing along the SAT TV equipment since we would rather watch the local BROADCAST stations anyway. If there is something we really want to watch on CABLE TV when out in the woods we just log into CNN-TNT-etc using the Verizon MIFI connections on the computer. This does eat up your dataplan big time but there are somethings (like movies) you really want to watch sometimes.

Hope this is helpful for you... ALSO if you are using the DIGITAL TV conversion box - get rid of that and go pickup a HDTV ready TV. We use the 22-inch HDTV made by VIZIO and it works great for us out in the woods. Even the squirrels and deer like to sit around the patio with us watching NCIS way back in the woods... I also love the 24 HR weather broadcasts on Natl TV. Being in a POPUP makes you keep an eye to heavens all the time.. Sometimes we get a BEAR at the table watching HDTV with us...


All photos from google images

This is the way I do the HDTV setups when camping off the power grids - I'm sure others do it differently - Works great for us...

[2008jeep]

Originally Posted by Rick in CG,MN

We are having trouble getting good digital TV reception in some areas. Is there a digital signal booster we can connect inside the camper??

I have a 2012 Skylark and it came standard with the fixed, Omni Directional TV antenna that was just so so as far as reception. I purchased a new antenna from Camping World and I went from 2 stations at home in our drive way to 13 channels. The antenna is a fixed antenna (does not have to be raised or lowered) and can be rotated left or right to get the best reception and has reception lights in the antenna control inside the TT. The 12 Volt booster was replaced with another one that matches the antenna. I paid a bit over $300 for the antenna and the installation and have been impressed with the reception quality.

[2008jeep]

I purchased a new antenna that stays in the up position during travel and we paid about $300 to get the antenna and had it installed at the Camping World facility in Valencia CA. When I got home I tried the antenna and yes I had used the booster, but I went from being able to find 2 (one Spanish and one Korean) channels while sitting in our drive way to 14 channels. On a one month trip we were regularly able to get a number of channels in areas where we were told that its hard to get any channels. The new one worked really well.

[tlhdoc]

I have the standard batwing antenna that i added a Wingman to it. The Wingman helped. I now have a Jack antenna and it works much better. I originally mounted the Jack antenna to the poles that the batwing was mounted to , BUT I can not lower the Jack antenna to the roof. The Jack antenna hits my AC unit. Now I have the Jack antenna mounted on a pole next to the camper. I plan on buying the Jack antenna that mounts to the roof of the camper and not to the existing poles of the batwing antenna. Maybe Christmas.

[bed685]

I had the same problem. I had the amp in the wall plate and it didn't seem to help. I bought the booster for the antenna on the roof, still no good. I, finally, took apart the antenna crank in the ceiling and found that the cable going from the wall plate to the antenna was not connected the to antenna. I screwed the cable back together and that did the job. Sounds silly, but it doesn't hurt to check to make sure all connections are secure. It is a cheap and easy diagnostic. Yet another "dah" moment.

[rbrumfield]

Originally Posted by bed685

I had the same problem. I had the amp in the wall plate and it didn't seem to help. I bought the booster for the antenna on the roof, still no good. I, finally, took apart the antenna crank in the ceiling and found that the cable going from the wall plate to the antenna was not connected the to antenna. I screwed the cable back together and that did the job. Sounds silly, but it doesn't hurt to check to make sure all connections are secure. It is a cheap and easy diagnostic. Yet another "dah" moment.

For the first year that I owned the new fiver I had terrible reception and I tried everything that I could think of including checking the connection on the batwing. The booster plate is behind the bedroom TV and I checked the connection there. I even bought the Wingman to no avail. Finally it dawned on my to pull the booster out of the wall and check the connections there. Sure enough the lead from the batwing to the back of the booster was loose. Tightened it up and voila good reception. Like you said...cheap and easy diagnostic.

[norty1]

I installed a wingman on our rig today. No big reception problems except in fringe areas. I had to trim the end off about 2 inches to get clearance on the ac shroud.

We will give it a good test in a few weeks.

[IdahoBob]

We had problems getting TV reception for the first year we had our 23FB. We just thought it was because we were out of range. After checking into it I found that the TV cables where not connected correctly at the booster box. Once I corrected the problem we get great reception even in the mountain valleys of Idaho.
Bob

[thomasmnile]

For all the hoopla about what an "improvement"digital television is, I have so far been underwhelmed with reception we experienced in both our RV's with the Winegard "batwing". If you're not precisely aimed toward a transmitter, reception is in and out, some stations you can't get by day mysteriously appear at night. I tried satellite (tripod antenna and a receiver brought from home), took to many beers to aim the dish, not worth the aggravation. At least I got nature, dvd's and country music on the radio! Maybe I'll do the antenna upgrade down the road.

[RoyBraddy]

thomasmnile

I am not doing anything out of the ordinary here. I use the BATWING antenna with the UHF head on it. This antenna has a built-in pre-amp which I have to turn-on with pushing a button on the antenna connection plate inside the trailer. I am using a HDTV VIZIO 22-inch (less than $200 WALMART).
This is photo of my setup on my off-road POPUP camping at Loft Mtn on Skyline Drive. It picked up some 80 digital channels sitting on top of the mtn. Of course most of them was the same channels hehe just picked up from different towns on both sides of the mtn... I have to take down all of this when we pack up for travel. Surprisingly I haven't destroyed anything yet...



This is not my normal pickup of digital stations. Was the only picture I could find in my photo pile to show you my setup. I do get from 6-36 digital stations here on the east side of the US just about everywhere we go here on the east sides. There are perhaps more choices here on the east with the population of big towns being more... The signals are in full screen full blown high def TV signals...

Since we are camping off the power grid alot it is great to be able to get the local 24/7 weather radar stations to keep track of the sudden storms that might come up...

I never tried using one of those digital conversion boxes that were offered when the nation Broadcast digital TV came. I have always use this 22-inch High Def VIZIO tv set...

It is tricky to get the right position sometimes and sometimes the air planes flying over head with cause some problems... All in all however it works great for us and very pleased to have to have it for FREE...

We used to drag around all of our SAT TV dish and receivers but after I saw what I getting with this setup I don't bother bringing along all of the other SAT stuff from the house...

Roy Ken

[thomasmnile]

Roy, just got back from a weekend in the woods (Salt Springs, CG Ocala Nat'l Forest). About equal distance from Jax & Orlando TV stations, closest to Ocala/Gainesville. Did the auto channel program on the TV when we set up with antenna oriented toward Jax. Nothing. Turned the antenna southeast toward Orlando, got the CBS/ABC affiliate, FOX in Gainesville, U of F PBS channels in Gainesville, and more religious programming than you could shake a Bible at. The reception quality was in and out for all the network channels, but the religious stations all came in fine all the time, day or night (a message there, perhaps). The Orlando stations came in better after sunset, which has always been my experience with digital OTA reception in an RV. The best reception came on that channel the TV referred to as "NO SIGNAL", though the programming was not very exciting...........