What's Best Digital Antenna Upgrade ?
We have a 2007 MH with the classic batwing Winegard crank up analog antenna on the roof. We bought a digital converter box years ago and works ok. Lately we have been losing signal and DW is after m...
Forum Discussion
Ed_Gee wrote:
Having followed innumerable discussions on RV TV antennas, it is my opinion that the 'best' antenna is the old reliable Bat Wing, which you already have. Adding the Winegard Wingman will improve its stock performance noticeably, but unless you have something wrong with it ( like the RF pre-amplifier in the head has failed or power to the pre-amp is not present ) you probably won't get any better performance from the newer choices.
I have to agree with Ed_Gee. We had the Winegard Batwing on our 2001 Winnebago Adventurer. When digital TV became standard we added the converter box. Reception was ok but certainly not the best. A few months later we added the Wingman and it greatly improved reception.
Fast forward a few years. We purchased a 2013 Adventurer with the Jack antenna. We were camping with friends in an out of the way campground. Their coach had the batwing with the wingman add on while we had the new "latest and greatest" Jack Digital antenna. The best we could do was get a PBS station about 30 miles away. They were able to get all the regular network stations, some of which were up to 70 miles away.
To me the old batwing is the most dependable and easiest to use. The only downsides are that it can't be deployed in a heavily forested area, and you have to remember to lower it when you leave the campground.
The Jack antenna works well for stations within a 50 mile range, but that's about it. The nice thing is you don't have to raise or lower it.
