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Old 05-11-2013, 02:20 PM   #1
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Another television question

Hey guys I'm trying to buy some television's for my 27' grey hawk. My question is should I purchase a home unit from let say Wal mart or get a brand with a/c,d/c capability's (Jensen). I would like to use it for both dry and shorepower. Thanks guys and sorry about the terminology, I'm new at this...
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Old 05-11-2013, 02:38 PM   #2
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Lot more questions than answers...

Do you have a generator on board the Grey Hawk? If so there is much less need for a 12v DC TV.

If no generator, do you have sufficient enough "house battery bank" to add television usage to your 12v loads while dry camping with out killing your house batteries?

Doesn't a MH typically have an inverter standard to run things like TVs when underway or dry camping? If so again no need for a 12v TV.

Ive never had a 12v TV, not really sure I've seen a AC/DC combo unit. IMO having a AC/DC or DC TV gives a lot more things to think about with respect to batteries and recharging while dry camping.

IMO, just get a 120v TV from wichever store you pick and then figure out how to supply AC power when dry camping. Either using an inverter or generator.
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Old 05-11-2013, 02:42 PM   #3
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We always plug our TV's into an inverter that is plugged into the 12V outlet by the TV. The inverter gives us the capability to power some other device when we are not watching TV which is handy.

This is the one I use.
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Old 05-11-2013, 02:48 PM   #4
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I use the standard ole WALMART VIZIO specials for the living room area and the bedroom area. These are 120VAC television sets.

I run all of these off of the shore power when available and if camping off the power grid I use a 600W PSW Inverter pulling DC power from my battery bank which is big enough to handle this load for the one day/night camping run. I don't need the 600WATTS just for the home entertainment items but have several other 120VAC things we want to have running when we are camping off the power grid. You could probably do very nice just using a 300WATT PSW Inverter to just run the home entertainment items..

Then the next morning I re-charge my battery bank back up to its 90% charge state in a three hour generator run time using smart-mode charging technology so we can do this all over again the next day/nigh camping run.

Just my way of doing it...
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Old 05-11-2013, 03:33 PM   #5
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That sounds pretty good thank you so much for the replies, they were very helpful. So it looks like I'm heading to Wally World. Thanks again...
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Old 05-12-2013, 06:16 AM   #6
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Well brought a television last night hooked it up with shorepower and nothing but snow. I have a rotating Sateillite dome and a batwing antenna. So I tried it with the generator running and got nothing not even turned on. I'm so clueless when it come to electronics. I guess I will try an inverter. Or do I need to get direct or dish services? Do you see anything I'm doing wrong. Thanks
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Old 05-12-2013, 06:42 AM   #7
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Another television question

There typically is a powered booster for the antenna, with a push button switch. Without powering this booster I get no reception. With it I can almost always pull in some digital channels.

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Old 05-12-2013, 07:21 AM   #8
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Good to know, I'll look for it and give it a try. Thank you Terry...
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Old 05-12-2013, 07:24 AM   #9
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Your problem isn't a power issue at this point if you are getting snow on the TV. The first thing you should do is visit this link and input your address. This will give you a listing of the over the air channels you MIGHT be able to receive in your location. The channels that come up in green are your best chances for getting reception. Then click on some of the FOUR DIGIT channel names that come up in green, for example, your local WNBC, WCBS, CFOX, etc... You will get some technical information that pops up underneath but you are only looking for one thing, the compass heading. It won't actually SAY compass heading, rathr it will say something like W for west, NNE for north northeast, SSW for south southwest, etc.... These are the locations that you need to point your TV antennae to in order to get reception. Be warned that just because it says you CAN receive the channel where you are, it doesn't necessarily mean you WILL get that channel because of any obstructions between you and the broadcast antennae such as buildings, mountains, trees, etc.. This will work for you.

You can completely skip this paragraph if it sounds too technical. If you want to take it one step further, there's a number parenthesis immediately following the compass heading so that the whole thing will read like "E (90)." The 90 is actually giving you a much better compass heading to point the antennae to. A compass has 360 degrees, just like a circle. Imagine a clock in your head and imagine a compass. North is at 12 o'clock and also gets a compass heading of 0. East is at 3 o'clock and gets a compass heading of 90. South is at 6 o'clock and gets a compass heading of 180. West is at 9 o'clock and gets a compass heading of 270. Are you following me so far? :-) Anyway, you might get a TV listing that says something like E (80). That might confuse you because you know that East should be 90, but given your location, the TV station broadcast antennae isn't exactly East of you, it's actually East with an ever so slight north direction. This paragraph isn't necessary to get channels but it could help by giving a more precise location to point your antennae.

Your next step is to go into your camper and look for the following receptacle. Name:  22-8297.jpg
Views: 66
Size:  11.0 KB What you want to do is press that little black button on it so that a little green light lights up right next to it. You want the green light to be ON. Then you need to run a TV cable from the receptacle to your actual TV. This will connect your TV to the roof antennae.

Next up, raise the TV antennae on your camper. Once it's up, you can pull down the dial on it to rotate the antennae. I'm assuming your antennae looks like this. Click image for larger version

Name:	antenna-6.3.jpg
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ID:	7950 If so, the side you are looking at is the side you want pointing towards the broadcast antennae. The side with the wiring should be pointing in the OPPOSITE direction of where you want to get the signal from. Simply turn the dial in the camper so that the antennae faces the correct position.

They also make a VERY easy attachment that you can install on your antennae that will increase it's range. It will make your TV antennae sort of resemble a TV antennae you might have had on your house years ago. Here's a picture. Name:  RVW-395_medlrg.jpg
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That little attachment thing points in the direction that you want to get a TV signal from. You don't need this thing, but perhaps it helps in understanding what direction you need to point your antennae.

Finally, go in your camper and turn the TV on. Hopefully you see a snowy picture. Grab the remote for the TV and hit the menu (or possibly setup) button on it. I don't know your TV so I can't say for sure. Hopefully you'll get some settings on the TV screen. Scroll through the settings until you reach the "channel" setting and then select it. Hopefully you're at a screen that lists signal type. Make sure it says "air" and not cable. Then scroll down to the setting that says something like execute, or auto program or something along those lines. Select it and sit back for a few minutes as your TV searches for the channels it will receive. It could take 5 minutes or so but once it's done, you should have TV.
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Old 05-12-2013, 07:44 AM   #10
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Oh my goodness that was wonderful, I think you nailed it cm. thank you so much for the detailed reply. I'm going to give it a try. That was so understanding you should write manuals for set ups, no kidding. The compass setting is right down the line from what I did( fire dept. and crash fire rescue ie. aircraft and airports) and do and also been an outdoor woodsman I use it quite a bit. Sir once again thank you so much I'll let you know how it turns out..
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Old 05-12-2013, 08:11 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by Bivwack View Post
Oh my goodness that was wonderful, I think you nailed it cm. thank you so much for the detailed reply. I'm going to give it a try. That was so understanding you should write manuals for set ups, no kidding. The compass setting is right down the line from what I did( fire dept. and crash fire rescue ie. aircraft and airports) and do and also been an outdoor woodsman I use it quite a bit. Sir once again thank you so much I'll let you know how it turns out..

My pleasure, I wish you luck. We do all of our camping here on Long Island so it's a pretty safe bet to point our antennae West in order to get the NYC broadcasts. I can point it North to get some Connecticut stations but NYC works best for us. 95% of our camping is done on the south shore of Long Island on the beach and I can't tell you how many people will point their antennaes south or east. I'm pretty sure there are no broadcast antennaes in the middle of the atlantic ocean. lol

One more tip I did is to see the direction my TV antennae points when it's down. I then took a pencil and drew a line on the dial you pull down to indicate what direction the antennae is pointing when it's down. That way I will know what way the antennae is pointing when I rotate the dial. I simply point the pencil mark of the direction I want reception since the pencil mark points the same way as the antennae. :-)
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Old 05-12-2013, 04:23 PM   #12
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Another great tip. And your area sounds beautiful. I thank you again. Happy camping..
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Old 05-12-2013, 08:38 PM   #13
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I have to agree CM - great set of directions!
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Old 05-18-2013, 02:03 PM   #14
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Well CM I followed you direction to a tee and I now have television. I can't believe how many channels I can pick up. I want to thank you again for your help I know I couldn't have done it with the info. Oh yeah, I have a satellite system, the one that rotates its a dome on top of the camper. When I hooked the cable up to it then pushed power the antenna rotates then a green light comes on next to the power button but no TV. Is there anything more I can do? Thanks again..
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Old 05-20-2013, 10:04 AM   #15
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We always plug our TV's into an inverter that is plugged into the 12V outlet by the TV. The inverter gives us the capability to power some other device when we are not watching TV which is handy.

This is the one I use.
Just getting into the swing of things here and doing thread research on running TVs from Inverters. cm11599ps, I noted your choice of inverter and did some research on it and it shows very good reviews at a reasonably low price, which tells me it is a MSW vs a PSW inverter. My question is: are there any issues running HDTVs using MSW inverters like yours? Does it matter if it is LED, LCD, Plasma? I guess I am just trying to get me feet wet at low cost here, so am looking at something like a 22 inch Vizio LED coupled with the Wagan 400W inverter. We would just be using for the TV, DVD, and possibly running a laptop and charging Apple I-devices (USB).
Advice? Thanks in advance!
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