Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Technology Corner: Digital over the air tv.

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Topic: Digital over the air tv.

Posted By: ivbinconned on 01/05/17 09:41pm

Thinking of buying one of these
http://m.ebay.com/itm/252528594825?_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=20150313114020&meid=9bd3b31848884e0ca4d83cb8d5412bc4&pid=100338&rk=3&rkt=11&sd=311764840454&_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_mwBanner=1

Is it true I would pull in many stations near Havasu, quartzite , and Barago Springs?
Heading that way in a week.

Ram and 34 ft Cedar Creek

Posted By: Old-Biscuit on 01/05/17 09:55pm

Winegard RAZOR antenna.......

[image]

NOPE---------

Sits to low
OTA Digital signals are best received via an antenna with height such as the Winegard Batwing CRANK UP antenna

[image]

Is it time for your medication or mine?

2007 DODGE 3500 QC SRW 5.9L CTD In-Bed 'quiet gen'
2007 HitchHiker II 32.5 UKTG 2000W Xantex Inverter
US NAVY------USS Decatur DDG31

Posted By: lj2654 on 01/05/17 10:08pm

above is better and add the sensar unit to dial in the strongest signal...

2001 Beaver Contessa Naples 40
2012 Cadillac Srx
retired AirForce 1979-1992

Posted By: n7bsn on 01/05/17 10:28pm

Height is Might (for antennas)

An antenna 2 ft above the roof will usually out perform a similar antenna mounted 6 inches above the roof.

2008 F350SD V10 with an 2012 Arctic Fox 29-5E
When someone tells you to buy the same rig they own, listen, they might be right. When they tell you to buy a different rig then they own, really pay attention, they probably know something you don't.

Posted By: tempforce on 01/06/17 01:32am

digital t.v. is line of sight. if your antenna can't see the stations antenna. you won't get enough signal, no matter what you use as a antenna. if you are line of sight and the station is a long distance. then a amplified or a large receiving antenna will work the best.

somewhere in the texas 'lost pines'
currently without rv.
'13' Ford Fusion
'83' Ford Ranger with a 2.2 Diesel.
'56' Ford F100, 4.6 32 valve v8, crown vic front suspension.
downsizing from a 1 ton diesel and a 32' trailer, to a 19-21' trailer for the '56'.

Posted By: SCVJeff on 01/06/17 01:55am

Sorry but that's not at all true and any ham here that's ever worked 2mtr VHF or UHF will back that up. Line of sight only for TV is a 1950's wives tale when receive technology was nowhere close to where it is now.

When ATSC was first introduced there were people all over the country that were commonly watching the experimental stations from hundreds of miles away with good preamped antennas and 1st generation ATSC receivers on UHF. Digital modulation is often far more robust than analog at equal power and equivalent distance.

If the OP is comparing antennas, the Batwing is by far the superior antenna and depending on where you are in and around Quartzsite can see stations from Yuma and Phoenix

Jeff - WA6EQU
'06 Itasca Meridian 34H, CAT C7/350

Posted By: Merrykalia on 01/06/17 04:41am

We purchased the 1byone 70 Miles Omni-directional Amplified Outdoor HDTV Antenna Caravan TV Antenna High Performance RV Antenna, but it doesn't seem to still be available. We installed it a couple of months ago while camping in a TN State Park. We had two channels on our TV, installed this thing and got 23 different stations. We were very pleased.

2017 Ford F350 Crew Cab 6.7L 4x4 DRW

Posted By: Bill.Satellite on 01/06/17 05:32am

Short story....Go with the Batwing antenna. If you already have one but it does not have the side arm then add the Wingman attachment.
If you don't have a Batwing and you don't want to put a hole in the roof then buy the Rayzar.

What I post is my 2 cents and nothing more. Please don't read anything into my post that's not there. If you disagree, that's OK.
Can't we all just get along?

Posted By: RoyB on 01/06/17 05:33am

Merrykalia wrote:

We purchased the 1byone 70 Miles Omni-directional Amplified Outdoor HDTV Antenna
Caravan TV Antenna High Performance RV Antenna, but it doesn't seem to still be available. We installed
it a couple of months ago while camping in a TN State Park. We had two channels on our TV, installed
this thing and got 23 different stations. We were very pleased.

1byone 70 Miles Omni-directional Amplified Outdoor HDTV is available from AMAZON for $102.99
google image

SW Virginia is loaded down with TV stations for sure...

I used to have one of these dual Hideaway dipoles on my POPUP trailer that got alot of stations as well here in VA...
[image]

google image

Finally went with the BATWING Antenna... This really picks up alot of station when we are camping off-road here in Virginia...
[image]

Roy's Image

Roy Ken

Posted By: Sam Spade on 01/06/17 07:15am

Bill.Satellite wrote:

Short story....Go with the Batwing antenna.

Depends. On whether your main objective is performance or convenience.

I got the Winegard for convenience. It performs good but the head failed and was warranty replaced once. The second one seems fine.

Posted By: Johno02 on 01/06/17 09:09am

Been stated, tested and proved here on this forum that the winegard Sensar IV is about the best overall for OTA reception. I generally can receive up to about 70 miles, depending on terrain.

Noel and Betty Johnson (and Harry)
2005 GulfStream Ultra Supreme, 1 Old grouch, 1 wonderful wife, and two silly poodles.

Posted By: SCVJeff on 01/06/17 09:51am

Merrykalia wrote:

Its probably not avaliable because an Omni antenna is by far the worst antenna on the market by any manfacturer unless you are camped literally within sight of the transmitter. They have no gain and no multipath rejection whatsoever. The OP is going to the desert surrounded by mountains with the nearest popular 60-100 miles away over several mountain ranges in any direction. Hardly a place for an Omni even if they did work.

Posted By: Merrykalia on 01/06/17 11:14am

SCVJeff wrote:

Merrykalia wrote:

We are located in the mountains of SW Virginia and the TV stations are on the other side of the mountains (about 5500 ft) and about 50-70 air miles away.

They may be the worst, but we have had great luck with it EVEN where we had no service with our crank-up antenna.

Posted By: Bill.Satellite on 01/06/17 02:19pm

RoyB wrote:

Merrykalia wrote:

We purchased the 1byone 70 Miles Omni-directional Amplified Outdoor HDTV Antenna
Caravan TV Antenna High Performance RV Antenna, but it doesn't seem to still be available. We installed
it a couple of months ago while camping in a TN State Park. We had two channels on our TV, installed
this thing and got 23 different stations. We were very pleased.

google image

Finally went with the BATWING Antenna... This really picks up alot of station when we are camping off-road here in Virginia...
[image]

Roy's Image

Roy Ken

The omni antenna listed above is not a very good option for an RV roof mount. You will do much better with a directional antenna. The Batwing being the best option.

Posted By: wa8yxm on 01/06/17 03:26pm

I will discuss 4 types of antennas and why I like or do not like them

1: OmniDirectional: No gain, short range, subject to multi-path interference JUNK
2: Manual Direcitonal Antennas (Batwing with wingman, Winegard Sensar IV) Best antennas for RV use. beyond a doubt.. Better antennas for fixed site but not for RV use

"Intelligent Self Aiming antennas".. Now this is a special case. I have a couple of digital adapters.. ONE has the ability to "chat" with the antenna and some antennas can aim themselves electronically based on what the receiver wants (Chat is over a 2nd data cable by the way) Only good for one TV at a time or all tv's on the same station.. ALso the only one I've seen is not that good on range.

Rayzar Automatic Antenna... I'm not sure how this works but I suspect it picks the strongest carrier and peaks it. That is logical

During the summer half the time that would be great, the other half I need to be two notches east of peak on the strongest signal.. And alas, the automatic, I don't know how to do that. But with the Batwing+Wingman.. Works great.

Home was where I park it. but alas the.
2005 Damon Intruder 377 Alas declared a total loss
after a semi "nicked" it. Still have the radios
Kenwood TS-2000, ICOM ID-5100, ID-51A+2, ID-880 REF030C most times

Posted By: SCVJeff on 01/07/17 03:20am

Merrykalia wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:

Merrykalia wrote:

If your crank up antenna is a Batwing, and that Omni works better.... the Batwing is broken
(Edit: fixed formatting)

* This post was edited 01/08/17 07:49am by SCVJeff *

Posted By: azjeffh on 01/07/17 08:04pm

I would gladly give up my Razar for a Batwing any day of the week.

* This post was edited 01/08/17 10:54pm by azjeffh *

Jeff
Wonderful wife Robin
2016 F350 PSD Dually
2016 DRV 38RSSA

Posted By: hotpepperkid on 01/08/17 02:32pm

The batwing with the additional yagi should be your choice. When at an RV park I see antennas pointing in ever direction which tell me people have no clue in which direction the TV stations xmitters are located or it really doesn't matter if your antenna is up or not. In most cases I don't even bother to raise mime

2019 Ford F-350 long bed SRW 4X4 6.4 PSD Grand Designs Reflection 295RL 5th wheel

Posted By: MrWizard on 01/08/17 04:07pm

the Winegard Rayzar i am aware of is motorized
aka Automatic and searches for channels and can remember where they are at
[image]

it costs approx $350, which is more than the batwing with wingman (which is still the best RV antenna)
but is a better option than an omni directional, if one does not have the space for a batwing

Winegard

Winegard rayzar automatic on Amazon

I can explain it to you.
But I Can Not understand it for you !
....

Connected using T-Mobile Home internet and Visible Phone service
1997 F53 Bounder 36s

Posted By: Sam Spade on 01/09/17 11:36am

MrWizard wrote:

the Winegard Rayzar i am aware of is motorized
aka Automatic and searches for channels and can remember where they are at

I am basically lazy.
Mine works better than the "omni" that it replaced.
I am happy with it.

Posted By: campermama on 01/26/17 10:01am

So I am a camp host up on Lake Oroville, Ca for 5 months. Too many trees for my satellite dish. I have small 40 mile antenna that I used last summer and got like 4 or 5 channels with it. For this summer I am looking at getting this one:

HDTV 1080P Outdoor Amplified Antenna Digital HD TV 150 Mile 360 Rotor UHF/VHF/FM
Powerful Receiption! Up to 150Mile! US Stock! 2016

Anybody use one like this? I am thinking I should pull in a bunch of channels with this compared to my other one.

Any other thoughts, ideas, advice?
Thanks!!

2018 Dodge Ram 3500 Laramie,SRW,CTD,4x4,Long bed
2020 Jayco eagle ht 274ckds

My Adventure Blog:
https://roaddivaontheroad.blogspot.com/2020/03/getting-ready.html

Posted By: Sam Spade on 01/26/17 02:21pm

campermama wrote:

HDTV 1080P Outdoor Amplified Antenna Digital HD TV 150 Mile 360 Rotor UHF/VHF/FM
Powerful Receiption! Up to 150Mile! US Stock! 2016

It might....if you don't mind rotating it each time you change channels.

And any antenna will work better the higher up it is.

You need to pay attention to the overall size AND whether or not it can be folded back up once deployed. Many are not designed to "go back in the box" once used.

If there really are THAT many trees around, you might not have a good solution.

Posted By: bob_nestor on 01/26/17 02:34pm

campermama wrote:

A link to the one you're referring to would have been nice. However, if it's the one I think it is I picked one up at a local store to install in my attic at home. I'm about 50 miles from the TV antenna farm and all but one station are UHF. I was pretty impressed with the ability of this small antenna to bring in a lot of stations, sadly it couldn't pull in the one VHF station in my area. I replaced it with an antenna that's about 3 times the size but only advertised about a 70 mile range and it performs a bit better - it does snag the VHF station.

Overall, given the size (and the price at about $30) these little antennas are pretty impressive, although I wouldn't put much stock into the claimed range of 150 miles. For most users I'd say the range is about 1/2 of that and even less if you don't install it high and outside. But for an RVer camped within about 50 miles of the stations it should be a pretty good performer especially given the price and size.

Posted By: SCVJeff on 01/27/17 09:07am

Agreed.. a link would be nice..
Other than that there is no such thing as an HD antenna of any format. There is also no such thing as an antenna that's rated for some arbitrary distance, like "50 Miles". That's nothing but sales hype to lure in those not knowing any better.

Distance depends 100% on the power at the transmitter, height of the antenna, it's radiation pattern, topography, what else is in the way, like trees, and the sensitivity of your TV. THEN we can talk about this antenna you're looking at. If you have people in the area that can see local channels, talk to them about what they're using.

* This post was edited 01/27/17 09:21am by SCVJeff *

Posted By: campermama on 01/27/17 11:04am

Here ya go.....sorry about that

Antenna

Posted By: SCVJeff on 01/27/17 03:14pm

campermama wrote:

Here ya go.....sorry about that

Antenna

well if you believe those specs it's not a bad antenna. What I do know about them is that I have seen lots of them around Quartzsite and have talked to a few that have them. They all say that they way outperform the Batwing. There are a couple where we are camped and I asked what they see. Both are seeing 21 channels out of Parker. One of those owners also has a Batwing, along with his camping nutty and me nearby. None of the Batwings see anything where we are. Might buy one to try at home since they are so small.. I'll bet it's VHF performance isn't that great tho

Posted By: wa8yxm on 01/27/17 03:15pm

Looks like a good UHF antenna and a decent VHF (the long folded element is the VHF, not sure how well it will perform on VHF (just the one element) but 50 miles is good.. Most Digital is UHF and that looks like a very good UHF antenna. Of course I'm going on appearance, and training and antenna design theory all of which goes to trash if the dimensions are off by a small amount.

How to tell if the station you want to watch is VHF lo, VHF hi or UHF

Two ways.. If you have yet to detect it.. ANTENNA HELPER FREE for yoru phone will give you lots and lots of info on television stations "Near" you.. Including the display channel (IE: 7-1) the Carrier hannel (42) and the location (Roughly 10 mile Evergreen, Southfield, MI for the specific station I'm using as an example)

That is a UHF station (42)

Or Display channel 2-1,, Carrier channel 7,, 9 Mile west of Greenfield, Southfield MI This is a VHF-HI (7) station.

2,3,4,5,6 are VHF low (Carrier) 7-12 HI 13 and up UFH, but as you can see the CARRIER is often not the same as the display channel.. NOTE

Channel 12 flint.. really is channel 12

The app also gives you Vector (Distance and direction) from wherever you are standing when you invoke it to the tower site (Very useful)

I mentioned a 2nd way.... On many TV's once you DETECT a station you can ask the TV what the carrier is... Menu, setup channel edit is the most common path Or Signal Strength on some menus.

I use those features in conjunction with my Sensar Pro to peak.

Posted By: campermama on 01/28/17 10:40am

SCVJeff wrote:

campermama wrote:

Here ya go.....sorry about that

Antenna

I ordered it...once I try it out I will let you know how it does.

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