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joebedford

Home for the summer.

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Posted: 08/10/23 10:17pm

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I have found the Winegard crank up to be pretty good near most cities. In fact, my RV has / had an omni-directional antenna that was c**p so I installed a crank up batwing.

If you're looking for Canadian TV, a CANADIAN dish will be good anywhere in Canada until you get far north of 60.

Bell stopped sat. TV in the southern USA maybe 10 years ago. We switched to Shaw Direct and it has been good except their only sat. with signal footprint in southern USA is de-orbiting soon (nobody is quite sure exactly when). If you travel anywhere in Canada, Shaw Direct works well. Soon you won't be able to get CDN sat. in (southern) USA.

If you're happy with American TV then there are lots of options.

Personally I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't get CDN TV. After a hard day of doing 'nothing' we like to watch CDN TV. Maybe our 20 year streak of snowbirding will end?? VPNs are useless because of geoblocking.

theoldwizard1

SE MI

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Posted: 08/11/23 07:17am

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We need a guinea pig, and you are just the man !

wa8yxm wrote:

How I did it
I had TWO single channel analog DVR's very programmable and very "Chatty" that is they shared files I could program a show to record on #1 from #2 or the other way around or on either of them from this laptop.

Current, digital (ATSC) "over the air" (OTA) TV uses the same antennas as the old NTSC, so no changes their.

All you need is a ATSC USB "dongle" a laptop computer (or a Raspberry Pi, very inexpensive) and FREE Kodi software !

Tom_M

New Hope, MN

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Posted: 08/11/23 10:30am

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The Winegard crankup (aka Batwing) is generally considered the best RV antenna for OTA (Over The Air) TV. The latest version is the Sensar IV. This is a directional antenna so it needs to be rotated so that it points toward the broadcast tower. There are apps that you can install on a smart phone that show where the towers are. If you are having problems receiving a TV signal, here is an article that may help: Tune up your TV antenna.

Here's a link to an app I use on my Android phone: Digital TV Antennas

Tom
2005 Born Free 24RB
170ah Renogy LiFePo4 drop-in battery 400 watts solar
Towing 2016 Mini Cooper convertible on tow dolly
Minneapolis, MN

wa8yxm

Davison Michigan (East of Flint)

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Posted: 08/11/23 03:54pm

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theoldwizard1 wrote:

We need a guinea pig, and you are just the man !

wa8yxm wrote:

I no longer have an RV.
I got the two Analog DVR's back before Digital transistion
used them at home.. Moved them into The RV when we dumped the house.

Worked great.> Post Transistion I had to put a converter in front of 'em.. one fun thing one park I was at one station was all the Batwing could pick up but way better than park cable.. So the Analog DVR's had multiple inputs... Both RF and the 3 cable (Right/Left-Composite) Used the latter from the converter and fed cable straight into the RF port. Worked great. The "Channel number" the software on my scheduler sent to the DVR decided he inpu 0-99 were one input 200-299 another. I could have added a 3rd input if I'd have had one (Composite there too)

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

Tom_M

New Hope, MN

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Posted: 08/12/23 04:08am

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There are converter boxes available that will record OTA TV for less than $30. The ones I have work fairly well once you figure them out. They all seem to be using the same software. You can search Amazon for "TV converter box" and will find a bunch of them.
Here's one that I'm tempted to purchase: Digital converter box.

[image]

wa8yxm

Davison Michigan (East of Flint)

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Posted: 08/12/23 04:53am

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CarnationSailor wrote:

RF Mogul satellite antenna and DISH Network. The antenna automatically acquires the satellites. Love it!

Does not work so good when you are parked under (or next to) he evil signal eating tree.. NOTE that tree can be some distance away if it's tall enough and on the right line. (Between you and the satellite).

Or a building can do it too.

You need a ground (Tripod mount) as well. at least as an option.

LouLawrence

Traveling the US fulltime since 2000.

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Posted: 08/12/23 08:42am

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I have been traveling for 20+ years and have had a Trav'ler on my roof (DirecTV) for over 10 years. I can count on 2 hands the number of times I was blocked by a tree or other obstruction. That happens by choice and in cooperation with the campground operators. We chose not to park under the trees. When that's not an option, we have hundreds of hours of programming on our DVR as well as our OTA antenna. I will likely be back on the road in a few days so what donI care!

wa8yxm

Davison Michigan (East of Flint)

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Posted: 08/12/23 03:40pm

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LouLawrence wrote:

Well in some parts of the country trees are rare
In other parts very common.. I live in Michigan. Many trees

LouLawrence

Traveling the US fulltime since 2000.

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Posted: 08/12/23 07:40pm

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Where there are many trees, there are also places without trees. It's all about choices. As I mentioned, the OTA antenna still works in the trees and on those rare occasions where I am bored on all other fronts I still have hundreds of hours of movies and TV shows saved to the satellite TV DVR. This is not a topic where one size fits all or where only 1 way is the right way. You just have to determine what the options are for your lifestyle.