TV Antennas

craig7h wrote:
I have put the king antenna onto the winegard raising arms. That seemed to work ok. On my past unit the king came with the unit and did not work worth anything. That's a whole story in its self.

Shortly after King came out with the Jack and their highly inflated claims of performance a forum member with access to the needed hardware put a Jack and a Sensar on the same mast and compared them side by side as it were.. At it's best the KING was 1/2 the antenna of the Sensar.. That's the channel it most closly matched the Sensar on.

On other channels it was worse still.

BUT.. if you have towers scattered about you it has a much wider beam width so it will see more of them.. but darn few campgrounds are so located cause TV transmitters tend to "Cluster" on high ground.

Here's a link to all the offerings from Winegard:
https://winegard.com/industry/recreational-vehicle-rv/hdtv-digital-antennas

Bill.Satellite wrote:
See Dutch's post above. The Sensar IV (or earlier with the Wingman add-on) is still the best fixed antenna for an RV. While the Winegard dome OTA antenna will find and lock to channels automatically is does not have the gain that the Batwing does. Adding the Sensar Pro allows you to point the antenna before doing a channel scan as it identifies where the strongest signal is in just a matter of seconds.

This is what I have been using for the past few years. Real easy to crank up antenna, spin back and forth for the highest signal strength and then turn on the HDTV and let it search and lock in the local channels.

Terryallan wrote:
Wouldn't the TV have to search and find the channel? that is the way mine works.

Winegarg makes a model that is a "Dome" as I recall that (The antenna si under a cover) that searches for the STRONGEST carrier and locks on and peaks. if you ask it to it will lock on #2 or #3 or #..however many it can detect (You almost never want it peaked on the strongest.)

There are others (not as good) that interact with selected TV's to search for an peak the selected channel... Of course only a few tv's have the needed com port.

down home wrote:
Our Motorhome has the original amplified Weingard antenna.
Near Kingman we are pulling in Phoenix channels for the most part.
however it does not search and lock on to signals itself.

As others have said, your antenna doesn't search/lock on; that is the job of your TV (accessed through the TV's menu). You should also download an app to determine which direction to point your antenna.

One area where the smaller antennas like the Jack and others fail to perform well, is on the low and high VHF channels. And if you don't think that's important, keep in mind that after the current channel repack completes about 25% (500+) of the stations will be broadcasting on those low and high VHF channels despite what their displayed virtual channel number indicates. Those long batwings on the Sensar antennas are specifically tuned for those lower channels.

There are many antrennas. My standard for the BEST is the antenna that gives me the Longest range.. Now understand there are two factors that interact, Range and beam width..

So if you will kindly place a necklace on the table in front of you I will describe as best I can. NOTE this is not 100% accurate.

Now arrange the necklace chain so it's a perfect signal. and you are in the center of the circle.. This is an OMNIdirectional antenna. Both King Controls (jack) and Winewgard) make antennas like this.

Now pull it out into kind of an egg shape.. This is a directional antenna.. Likewise both King and Winegard make this type as well... You are down just below the lesser diamater (the widest part of the egg. Below means away from the tip)

now pull it out so it's taller and thinner.. You just added the wingman

Add more chain to make it longer.. That's the SENSAR PRO indoor module.

Now you have what I use.

Next
There are antennas that interact with SELECTED televisions so they "Auto point" but there are several issues with these automatic antennas.

ONE the word SELECTED. two they are not high gain antennas (They are short range) Plus if you have multiple TVs or DVR's as I do....

And I think Winegard makes one that locks on the STRONGEST signal (you can repoint to a weaker signal if you wish) Have never used so can't tell you much about this one.

But if you don't care to aim it might be best for you.

Now. the system I use.. When I hit the "top" button on the Sensar Pro there is a column of LED's OFF = Park cable Top ON is "Seek/search" in this mode it will search for the STRONGEST Carrier signal and display the CARRIER channel (bottom display) and strength (Top) I can then peak, very fast response on the top meter.
Push the top button again the LED moves down one and now there are two bottom buttons marked UP and DOWN they will cycle through all the detected carriers I can then re-peak should I so desire.

Push it again and I can dial in any carrier I want.. Say 24 (Channel 32.N where I am at if I'm not mistaken) NOTE that CARRIER channel does NOT match TV Chanel.

Very nice. The next setting as I recall is GAIN 0 in case I happen to be parked literally under the transmitter tower) to 20 (Far out man).
And volume (That annoying aim your satallite dish beep beeper)
And then back to OFF

Had the Winegard automatic and it will do a decent job finding local stations. But you still have to fine tune it are annually adjust it depending on location of towers. Even then you will still need to do the scan on you TV. Batwing brings in more from farther away.

See Dutch's post above. The Sensar IV (or earlier with the Wingman add-on) is still the best fixed antenna for an RV. While the Winegard dome OTA antenna will find and lock to channels automatically is does not have the gain that the Batwing does. Adding the Sensar Pro allows you to point the antenna before doing a channel scan as it identifies where the strongest signal is in just a matter of seconds.

I, also am not aware of any OTA antennas which "locks" into a signal, I thought
the TV scans airwaves for a signal based on the position of the antenna.

As a point of reference I've used a Sensar iV, Rayzar Auto and I now have a
King Jack on my TT.

The adjustable Sensar iV seemed to be the best followed closely by the King
Jack with the Rayzar a VERY distant third.