omini diretional antenna

I replaced an older Winegard Sensat (maybe a III and I had added a WingMan) with a King Jack. I think we do a little better with the Jack, BUT BUT BUT the Winegard was old, and when I installed the Jack, I did all new cabling along with replacing the Winegard booster power supply panel with the one that came with the Jack.

Is a Jack better than an OMNI? Yes, Absolutely! Is Jack equal to Winegard Sensar IV with the basic booster power supply? No, but I'd call the difference "Slight." Sensar IV with SensarPro Booster, WAY better.

I think King Jack is a decent compromise for most of us. Installed on many new RV's. Better than Omni. Can't be forgotten in UP position like Sensar.

King Jack Drawbacks:

Can't pull quite the signal Sensar can
Vulnerable to low branch damage (sits about the height of a vent cover dome, lower than your A/C, but it's only Plastic and can't be brought down
Less adaptable to further changes in TV frequency usage - Not an expert here but I understand it's not much good on one of the bands (UHF or VHF and I forget the difference) if channels taken out of that band are one day brought back.

You'll be sorry.....unless the TV Transponder Towers are REAL Close

What wa8yxm said...

I’ve tried just about all of major antennas and the Sensar is by far the best overall performer in remote locations. Heck, two sections or wire hung between two trees will work in a populated area. I recently installed the Winegard Automatic and for the most part it does well, but not as well as the Sensar. The automatic is easier to find the best of the channels it sees, it just doesn't see all of them. As a fail safe, I kept the Sensar up on the roof, just in case I want to undo the Automatic.

I would thing zero however if you are camped with a whole bunch of TV towers say 10 miles out and all around you.. Well then an Omni might be good.

But a Directional antenna sees farther and delivers a much stronger and often cleaner signal. The Sensar IV is the best RV antenna in the US.

Smitty77 wrote:
About t 2 1/2 years ago we replaced a Star Trek Enterprise looking OTR antenna.

What's an "OTR antenna"? Perhaps you mean OTA - over-the-air? :h

Thanks for your commentary on the RAYZAR Auto ... I run a Sensar IV with SensarPro but it's still a PITA to find stations. If it weren't for the $500+ cost of the Auto here in Canada I'd certainly install one on our own trailer.

In radio/TV talk an Omni directional antenna is known to be equally weak in all directions. Same is true for RV antennai, aiming an antenna is always better. That doesn't mean the omni antenna you are looking at won't work as well or even better than your current antenna.
Will the new antenna system have booster, is the new antenna (omni) larger (more gain) in size than the old antenna. Read or post the specs of both antennai to see which is better for you.
Another tip if possible when you change out the old antenna also replace the coax cable too. Coax cable goes bad after time, plus most manufactures don't put the best quality cable in their RV's.

About t 2 1/2 years ago we replaced a Star Trek Enterprise looking OTR antenna.

I went with two from Winegard:

1) RAYZAR Auto (Which is the one we use 99.8% of the time, while looking for local channels.) The RV Repair place I was working with, wanted an early adopter so they could get real world feedback before recommending this to other customers. Probably one of the first installed in the California, for sure the first installed by this Repair Facility. Gave me break on the cost, and did not charge labor for the install. As long as they could refer people to me for my perspective - IF IT LIKED IT.) Oh, and I do. KISS to use, and does a good job.

2) Sensar Directional - Sure for the ability to pull in more distant signals when right on the fringes, but also because we wanted a crank up to attach other antennas too for WiFi and Cellular just a bit higher up off of the roof.

No question the Sensar will pull in a signal that the RAYZAR will not. But, I've used it maybe less then 5 times for TV signal, and a few were just to play around with. (We do have DirecTV with DNS, so many times we do not bother with the OTR. But wanted it for back up. Others that depend on OTR may find the Directional Sensar to be of more use to them.

$.02 - Keep the change, and best,
Smitty

+c