television...help!

From the OP: I have a flat portable antenna about 18" square that I've used when storms have knocked out satellite receptions. I hooked that device to the MH tv and promptly picked up 10 stations. Sooo, the problem is with the MH antenna or boost or both or a problem with coax routing. The MH is brand new so it'll be going back to CW next week. I'm tired of messing with it. Thanks to all who responded in attempts to assist.

My MH came with the small omnidirectional antenna on it. They are useless. Ours would often pick up nothing when our friends parked next to us would be receiving several channels.
I now simply use a leaf style antenna with a 50 mile range from Amazon that I connected directly to the switch box inside and it works great.

"This MH has a very small antenna that sits almost at top of MH."

From your description, it appears that you may have a basic omni-directional antenna. Antenna experts will tell you that "omni-directional" means "equally bad in all directions." You may want to consider upgrading to a Winegard Sensar IV crank up antenna. Add a SensarPro inline amplifier/signal finder to replace the standard power injector for optimum performance.

Might be a good idea to ask some of your neighbors if they get any OTA stations. If they do not, there is no more reason to keep trying. If they all get lots of stations, then you have a problem. Believe it or not, there are a few places in this wide country where OTA TV coverage does not exist, and in a few places, you can't even get cell phone service.

Ok that is the power supply for the booster (Which is in the antenna) Now, we get to tribble slaying.

Turn the light OFF

Go up topside and disconnect the coax from the antenna head

BEING VERY CAREFUL TO NOT SHORT the center wire to the shell hook up a test lamp.. This is a ice pick like thing you find at Auto Parts stores or departments, Insulate the clip and clip it to the center wire, make sure it metal of the clip does not touch the nut.

Turn on sight
Touch tip of probe to the metal "Shell" Bright light good, anything else bad.

Next step after that..

If good. turn off the light, and re-connect

NOTE: ONly connect, disconnect, light off.


Next step
The cable from the antenna goes only as far as the roof. Either sticking up through the roof buried in Dicor caulk or burried under a "Clamshell" cover that is covered in caulk is a connector.. Test here, use new coax

On my Antenna when it quit working this connector was..... Toast

I replaced the connector and a cable end or two and ... Studio quality.

If you are over 50 miles from the nearest Broadcast stations, you will probably NOT get reception. The OLD Analog stations you could get about 80 miles out reception. Still, you should be able to get some "ghost type" reception or digital freeze on a weak signal. I will bet the Coax system in the RV is NOT correct. You need to get it back to have it checked and fixed. Doug

dougrainer wrote:

goufgators wrote:

sharker6 wrote:
Do you have an antenna booster button? Is your input selected correctly on setup, and do you have antenna selected and not cable?

No antenna booster button. Input was correctly used on set up. Had Antenna selected.

This is your problem. You HAVE an Antenna Booster button. You just have to find it. Follow the TV coax to where it is connected. Doug

May HAVE found it! In a cabinet above the sofa is a coax plug in and beside it a very small light that was shining 'green'. No stations found with the light showing green or with the light out. Beginning to think per another response that I'm just too far from any over air stations. Our previous MH had the type antenna that could be raised and we had no problem pulling in over air stations with that antenna. This MH has a very small antenna that sits almost at top of MH. Seems that all that comes with a brand new MH is not always better than on older ones!!

What antenna do you have, if it's a King Jack antenna the power may come from a selection box (box of many buttons) or a power booster wall plate as shown in an above post, that would have to be set on antenna, and a switch on the aiming control also has a slide button, then the signal strength meter lights up.

The wall plate booster is popular with the bat wing antennas and is less complicated.

If it has never worked correctly it is possible that the wiring is connected wrong. I just spent time this weekend troubleshooting mine and found that one connection was in the wrong place. The second issue I found was that apparently my booster has an issue with the cable/sat connection where it does not pass the signal through even with the amp power off.

Don't give up, you can make it work and as others have said you do have a booster and just need to find it.

To help aim your antenna go HERE and enter your address.