New TV reception

While some say you get a great picture when you can get it sounds kinda stupid.I like you got money today tomorrow you have none would you be happy then? If Gov wanted everyone to have it they sure miss the boat some in the mnts can't get it at all even sat is hard because trees. While the old system didn't get great picture mostly all got it. Remember when cable came to being no commercials now ther are more them the show your watching and your paying for it LOL.

Perhaps. I will admit I have had widely different TV reception on adjecent sites when Camping. Where I'm at now I get Channel 29 (Carrier 35) out of Sarnia. and if I'm really lucky WADL (38 not sure the carrier) from North of Detroit.

On the other hand sometims I get 2 (Carrier 7) 4 (not sure) and 7 (41) out of detroit here in this park.

And in the other park I stay at (East of Flint) one AM I woke up and was watching 17.... That is Grand Rapids. about 200 miles.. Not so much this year but in past years Channel 6 (100 miles lansing MI) was possible.

You never know till you point the wingman and my wingman is slightly broken. (I will fix some day)

One thing to be aware of if you are trying to get the maximum range possible is that the beam width can be misleading. If you look at the specs on most antennas, it looks like you can be 15 degrees off and still work fine because they have a 30 degree beam width. That doesn’t tell the whole story though. The beam width is 30 degrees by standard engineering terminology, but the edges of the beam are defined by the point where received power is 1/2 of the power at the center of beam.

All that means is just a few degrees of error in aiming your antenna can result in a significantly lower signal strength. Easily enough to mean the difference between reception and nothing.

If your TV has a signal strength display, you can use it to fine tune the antenna aiming. Otherwise, Winegard makes an RV booster/hookup panel that displays signal strength. You can also get an external meter to hook to your cable.

One other issue is the signal loss introduced by splitters. The signal coming out of a splitter has less than half the power of what came in. If you have more than two TV hookups, your power available at each TV will be only 20% of what came out of the antenna. If you really need to catch that ballgame on a network station, replacing splitters with barrel connectors can be a big help. Of course you are limited to one TV.

When Dtv was new, I wound up making a tiered bowtie antenna with some vhf arms reaching out towards the towers still broadcasting signals on those frequencies. I was rather amazed at how many stations I got from mt wilson some 92 miles away.

But TV fool said what would be my strongest channels, were not, and stations that should have been weak were strong.

When the novelty of having 80 channels wore off I quit bothering aiming it so precisely. The tiered bowtie antenna was large and a pain to set up and lower and when I went of a roadtrip I just wanted a small easy omni antenna to get the main networks when somewhat close to towers.

To my complete surprise i was still able to get 75% of the channels that I could get with the tiered bowtie antenna sticking as high as 12 feet in the air and precisely aimed at Mt wilson. This antenna did better than a full size antenna master tv antenna nearby did so my tiered bowtie antenna was no slouch, but this tiny 16 inch long single rabbit ear omni antenna's reception was impressive to say the least.

So much so I have never bothered hooking up the tiered bowtie antenna again. I do have 2 of these antennas on an A-B switch, in slightly different orientations and if I can't get a channel on one I slide the switch and can usually get it on the other antenna or if LA stations are seeming weak I see of their equivalent SD stations are coming in.

I gave up on the reasons why I get stations I should not be able to and can't get stations I should be able to according to Tvfool.com

There has to be some good reason, but at this point it is what it is and if I can't get the station I want with my tiny single rabbitt ear antenna, I bust out a book instead.

First To Kathy's John (Or was it John's Kathy) Excellent post you are correct 100%

Now to LadyYatch

TV-Fool does not know about the big signal eating tree next to your site or sometimes even the building in the way... This is the reason the signal strength predictions can be 'Off' or rather one of the reasons there are others including your antenna.

Finally The station I'm watching now.. for some reason if I tune my SENSAR PRO to the proper carrier (35) and peak it.. THe signal strength on the TV goes DOWN.. WHY? I'm guessing signal to noise.. a noise source nearby gets stronger "Faking" out the Sensar pro but not the TV.

Turn off all LED lights, solar controllers or other electrical devices and see if it changes. The first two affect my channel scans and reception.

I wonder if these frequencies are more prone to temperature inversions. I have had days/nights that certain stations came in extremely well, only to lose them entirely when the next front passes.

Yep when you get it it's great but when you get it sh-- or nothing it's the government way LOL the latter most of the time.

Timely thread... we just bought a HD Roku TV, but I wanted to see if we could get digital over-the-air on it.

Yesterday I hooked up my 2005 era Winguard batwing antenna on the roof, but it wouldn't register anything until after I turned on the antenna gain boost (tiny power switch tucked away in my TV cabinet).

After turning that on, I had 20+ channels available in fairly good quality. Our house is about 40 miles from the transmitters for our city, and it was extremely clear from channels 5 upward.

lane hog wrote:


Yesterday I hooked up my 2005 era Winguard batwing antenna on the roof, but it wouldn't register anything until after I turned on the antenna gain boost (tiny power switch tucked away in my TV cabinet).

That tiny switch connects the antenna to the TV and also turns on power to the amplifier inside the antenna. In the off position, the TV is connected to the cable TV input.