TV Reception / Digital Antennas

We installed the Winegard Rayzar automatic and really like it. You do not have to worry about taking it down when you leave. It searches for signals and shows you where they are. We cannot compare the signal with other antennas but we have always found signals when we wanted to.

After trying DishTV and DirectTV for several years in our current house, we decided to go back to just over-the-air television. The camper picked up over 60 channels with the simple batwing and (booster) antenna, but the house did not have an antenna, as it was wired for satellite television. Fast forward a bit....

I was able to get a nice long pole and bought a standard old style VHF antenna and to my disappointment, it didn't work. Now mind you, there is more than 600 feet of coax wire running through my house. So I even attempted a true "booster" and connecting one room at a time, still did not work. No picture. Each room in the house was wired for satellite and had a separate line running to a single junction point. As the hosue is 2800 square foot and spread out over 1 level, that's a lot of square foot ... "foot print" and wire to run under the house, up walls, and through the attic. And I even added a few more lines myself.

I then added that square antenna. That antenna is over 50 years old. My dad was a television repair man, and when UHF was first introduced, he sold a LOT of these. Mom still had this one in her garage attic, never used, so she let me have it.

I actually wired both up together, and viola! We get the same channels (all 60 plus) in the house that we do in the camper, in every room, with a signal running through more than 600 feet of coax ... AND NO BOOSTER at all! (Really.... I've got a true spiderweb of coax running through my house, and every line clearly marked which rooms they go to.

So this configuration ... a standard old style VHF television antenna mixed with a 50 year old UHF antenna and no boosters at all, pull in over 60 stations from all 4 directions of our house. Believe it or not ... but true!

SoundGuy wrote:

SoundGuy wrote:
It's also popular to call the television wall plate a "booster" when in fact it has no ability to amplify the signal at all - it merely routes 12 vdc power to the antenna head where there is a signal preamp and routes the appropriate signal to the television.

mike-s wrote:
Oh, contraire.

It depends.

You know as well as I that I'm not referring to the Winegard SensarPro, which I own myself, but a standard Winegard non-amplified wall plate installed as a stock item in any trailer running a Sensar III or IV. :R



Obviously I'm referring to these stock wall plates, which almost everyone refers to as a "booster" - geez, just look at Old-Biscuit's post above! :S Au contraire indeed - these wall plates have NO ability to amplify the signal, unlike the specialized SensarPro which offers +/- 10 db of signal amplification / attenuation. You and I both understand that, it would behoove others to understand it as well - no need to cloud the issue. ;)

I don't have a 'wall plate' -----

I have a BOMB which turns on the 'booster' (amplifier) in head of antenna

Johno02 wrote:
Any good HAM operator can tell you how to bend a coat hanger to pick up any kind of signal.

Yes we can :)

I've been building my own antennas for 49 years.

SoundGuy wrote:
It's also popular to call the television wall plate a "booster" when in fact it has no ability to amplify the signal at all - it merely routes 12 vdc power to the antenna head where there is a signal preamp and routes the appropriate signal to the television.

mike-s wrote:
Oh, contraire.

It depends.

You know as well as I that I'm not referring to the Winegard SensarPro, which I own myself, but a standard Winegard non-amplified wall plate installed as a stock item in any trailer running a Sensar III or IV. :R



Obviously I'm referring to these stock wall plates, which almost everyone refers to as a "booster" - geez, just look at Old-Biscuit's post above! :S Au contraire indeed - these wall plates have NO ability to amplify the signal, unlike the specialized SensarPro which offers +/- 10 db of signal amplification / attenuation. You and I both understand that, it would behoove others to understand it as well - no need to cloud the issue. ;)

I found out this week that if I put the $40 digital antenna at the top of the ladder where it can rotate and plug it into the SAT input on the side of the 5er I can pick up WMOON. The station locator app certainly helps.
I never tried that input before, always did thru the window etc, etc.
I was up on the roof attaching the digital antenna to the batwing when I discovered that the coax was compromised. As I couldn't find the alleged coupler at the base of the antenna going thru the roof I gave up on that idea.

I crank up the RV antenna on roof...Winegard with batwing
Turn booster ON
AIM the front of it towards the TV Transponder Towers
(either by compass direction using AntennaWeb.org OR see which way other RVs have theirs pointed)
Do a scan for channels (TV input on 'Antenna')

Grab cold one and promptly settle in for a NAP!

SoundGuy wrote:
It's also popular to call the television wall plate a "booster" when in fact it has no ability to amplify the signal at all - it merely routes 12 vdc power to the antenna head where there is a signal preamp and routes the appropriate signal to the television.

Oh, contraire.

It depends.

Any good HAM operator can tell you how to bend a coat hanger to pick up any kind of signal.

Use one of the free "antenna locator" apps on you cell phone to locate the available stations and the direction in which to aim your antenna. Initially start out with the closest and or strongest, then you can peak reception as needed by rotating toward the station you want to use. My SensarIV plus the Sensar Pro inside will pull from about 60 miles away, depending on the terrain.