Antenna Suggestions

It's likely you are seeing half the stations your neighbors do, but whatever makes you happy.

Interesting, the negative responses to the Lava Omni-directional. In spite of that, I still swear by it. I camped at Barnstable Fairgrounds in Massachusetts and picked up 54 stations, most from Providence R.I., 70 miles away. I'll continue to use it.

Thanks Tom, I'll look into that

Here's my solution for fringe reception:

It's a military surplus aluminum mast that comes in four foot sections that stack. The antenna is a Winegard Sensar IV (Batwing).

Probably a better option for a mast:
Telescoping fiberglass flag pole

Another antenna option is the King Controls Jack. The replacement head unit comes with brackets to mount on a pole.

>>> Jack antenna on eBay

Looks like the best option so far is to mount a bat-wing, like on my Jayco Eagle, on a pole and support it alongside the rear ladder and the back porch of the Coachman.

Just requires some changes to the existing wiring but that is never a problem.

wa8yxm wrote:

Now, Winegard sells (i'm not sure who makes it but many companies sell it) a "Flying Saucer" that is directional.> Radio Shack calls it an HD antenna (there is no such thing as an HD antenna, they are all radio antennas) but it has built in amplifier and it is directrionnal.. Might meet your needs.. Stands up well in wind..---snip---

Stay completely away from these "directional" saucers as well. I have fixed many many of them installed on News vans. They have strips if aluminum used as elements literally taped to a very weak foam disk, and the motor that drives it is simply held on with fender washers. I'm sure you know what happens when you squeeze foam.... Needless to say, the disk is constantly slipping and the tape holding the elements on peels off. It can be fixed, but this is what will happen to a factory stock antenna.

Being a conversion van I probably would not want to mount one of the crank up antennas as well.

In my OFF-ROAD POPUP I had similar thoughts against drilling through the roof so I went with a side mount on a pole antenna setup. Granted when the POPUP trailer roof is raised I have a couyple of pretty strong mounts to the side of the trailer that makes it pretty strong. I experimented with the various antennas to put on the pole and it ende up the BATWING turned out to be the best.

Well I will take that back a notch. The best was actually one of those $90 full yagis from Lowes and it was great picking up up both VHF and UHF stations. It extended out over both ends of my POPUP trailer and would hit trees when rotated haha... The problem was however I destroyed it in one season having to take it down for transport after each stay and things broke and had to get rid of it.

Then I went to the BATWING and the Kings JACK antenna on my pole.

The BATWING ended up being the better of the two for me as I did need some beam width that BATWING gave. The KINGS antenna had to be really close to the direction of the HD TV station to pick it up at any long distance away...

My install would work great from a bumper mount and a support on the roof side of your setup.

This is what my BATWING mount ended up like... The ceter section allows the antenna pole inner section to be turn while the outer is secured to the roof mount. I can reach thru the trailer window flap to move the roof mounted BATWING if necessary...



We get great full blown High Def TV from the local towns using this setup. It is also easy to take down and put up and only takes about five minutes. No hole in the roof... It breaks down in two section for the pole and the batwing antenna removes from the pole real easy. Our whole thing sits inside our central area for the POPUP when lowered down for transport...

Being using this setup now since about 2010...

Roy Ken

dalenoel wrote:
Just purchased a 1989 Coachman Van Conversion without an external TV antenna. I'm looking to bolt an omni directional antenna to the roof rack railings.

I would strongly suggest you reconsider.. Omni directional antennas are just about worthless in most areas.. They have not gain other than the amp that may or may not be built in. They have not 2nd/multi path rejection, no rear path rejection and generally do not perform well.

Now, Winegard sells (i'm not sure who makes it but many companies sell it) a "Flying Saucer" that is directional.> Radio Shack calls it an HD antenna (there is no such thing as an HD antenna, they are all radio antennas) but it has built in amplifier and it is directrionnal.. Might meet your needs.. Stands up well in wind.. Not so good if you drive into a parking structure and it snagges the pipe on chain that says "Height 8'6".

You may ask how I know this if you like... (It was not my rig).

Note: this is still not my first choice (Winegard Sensare IV with Sensar Pro) but it's better than an omni.

Just drill the roof and make sure there is plenty of Dicor around the hole and you'll be fine. Short of that either of the two ideas above work fine. One of those stick on the window bow tie antennas might be all you new because of space considerations, but even it is way better than an Omni

Believe it or not I have one of these and it picks up stations 75 miles away, but you can't travel with it mounted

http://www.amazon.com/ViewTV-Outdoor-Amplified-Antenna-Rotation/dp/B017JEF126/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460299755&sr=8-1&keywords=150+mile+hd+antenna