I am set up in Des Moines for the weekend and have a problem with my TV antenna reception. As a result, I am looking for suggestions on what might be my problem.I have cranked up the antenna, I have made sure that the booster is set for antenna and not cable. I do not fully understand the booster display, but it appears that I have reception. When I auto-search for stations I only get one station on both the televisions. I know from experience that I should see about 15. I did not find any stations at the last campground, but I was unfamiliar with the area and wrote it off to where I was parked. Before I left home a few days ago, I had all the stations that I should have seen.All connections were checked. All settings on BOTH televisions are set to ANTENNA as is the signal booster. I am inside the city limits where I should be able to pick up all the networks without even cranking up the antenna.Now my question, where should I start my search for a remedy? This will not ruin my trip because I have better things to do than watch the tube, but I do like to watch the news at night.

You might use this website to locate the direction in which to point the antenna. Plug in your zip code and see what's available in the area.Make sure the batwing is up and the booster light is on. Ensure that the signal source is set for "antenna" before doing your scan/search. Good luck.

Additional troubleshooting:Disconnect the cable, run a scan, see what you pickup. Connect the cable, with the system setup for cable run a scan, see what you pickup.Certainly possible the bat-wing amp has died.

notruffinit wrote:I am inside the city limits where I should be able to pick up all the networks without even cranking up the antenna.Being in a zone with strong signal could mean that you don't need a booster, but having antenna properly oriented and unobstructed is still important. More important than having a booster.

Not sure if I can help or not but here is how mine works. We use it alot camping off the power grid.My OTA ANTENNA is a BATWING with a built-in preamp and is controlled by this ANTENNA WALL PLATE PANELAll I do is push the BLACK BUTTON on this panel which lights up the LED. This is indicating to me that 12VDC is now being applied to the built-in PREAMP in my BATWING OTA antenna.The next thing I do is point the BATWING OTA antenna toward the town that is transmitting the HDTV digital signals. Then I go to the MENU of my 22-inch VIZIO HDTV TV and select ANTENNA from the menu. Then I select AUTO SCAN from the menu and the TV starts scanning ANALOG signals first then starts on the DIGITAL SIGNALS. If I don't see any DIGITAL signal not counting in the first 15% of the digital scan I will stop scanning and move the BATWING antenna a few degrees in one direction or the other. Then RESTART the scanning again.We normally get 6-36 digital TV signals scanned in just about anywhere we go here on the East side of the US. All of these digital HDTV signal are full blown high def full screen HDTV signals.This is what we do when using the OTA BATWING antenna to pick up the digital Natl Broadcast signals from the local towns (CBS-ABC-NBC-FOX-PBS)...I guess the PRE-AMP in the OTA BATWING Antenna can go bad...This is my setup at any rate - yours may be different...Just my thoughtsRoy Ken

Sounds like something isn't connected correctly, or some setting on the TV is wrong. I just met somebody who couldn't receive OTA on their flatscreen using the Batwing. Turned out the flatscreen wasn't new enough to receive OTA DTV. It only offered OTA Analog and Cable. This couple had never used a site without cable to that day. Told'em they needed a Converter Box or a new TV.Wingard Batwing is fully HDTV capable. They offer an extenstion add-on called "Wing Man" that dramatically improves DTV reception, and it requires no tools to install. Just pop out the rubber feet on the bottom of the antenna head and install the Wing Man with plastic push pins provided. Just be sure the antenna lowers into a space that allows room for the extension.

OTA Antenna questions | Good Sam Community

Eycom
Explorer
May 26, 2013
You might use this website to locate the direction in which to point the antenna. Plug in your zip code and see what's available in the area.Make sure the batwing is up and the booster light is on. Ensure that the signal source is set for "antenna" before doing your scan/search. Good luck.
n7bsn
Explorer
May 26, 2013
Additional troubleshooting:

Disconnect the cable, run a scan, see what you pickup. Connect the cable, with the system setup for cable run a scan, see what you pickup.

Certainly possible the bat-wing amp has died.
Almot
Explorer III
May 26, 2013
notruffinit wrote:
I am inside the city limits where I should be able to pick up all the networks without even cranking up the antenna.

Being in a zone with strong signal could mean that you don't need a booster, but having antenna properly oriented and unobstructed is still important. More important than having a booster.
RoyB
Explorer II
May 26, 2013
Not sure if I can help or not but here is how mine works. We use it alot camping off the power grid.

My OTA ANTENNA is a BATWING with a built-in preamp and is controlled by this ANTENNA WALL PLATE PANEL

All I do is push the BLACK BUTTON on this panel which lights up the LED. This is indicating to me that 12VDC is now being applied to the built-in PREAMP in my BATWING OTA antenna.

The next thing I do is point the BATWING OTA antenna toward the town that is transmitting the HDTV digital signals.

Then I go to the MENU of my 22-inch VIZIO HDTV TV and select ANTENNA from the menu. Then I select AUTO SCAN from the menu and the TV starts scanning ANALOG signals first then starts on the DIGITAL SIGNALS. If I don't see any DIGITAL signal not counting in the first 15% of the digital scan I will stop scanning and move the BATWING antenna a few degrees in one direction or the other. Then RESTART the scanning again.

We normally get 6-36 digital TV signals scanned in just about anywhere we go here on the East side of the US. All of these digital HDTV signal are full blown high def full screen HDTV signals.

This is what we do when using the OTA BATWING antenna to pick up the digital Natl Broadcast signals from the local towns (CBS-ABC-NBC-FOX-PBS)...

I guess the PRE-AMP in the OTA BATWING Antenna can go bad...

This is my setup at any rate - yours may be different...

Just my thoughts
Roy Ken
j-d
Explorer II
May 26, 2013
Sounds like something isn't connected correctly, or some setting on the TV is wrong. I just met somebody who couldn't receive OTA on their flatscreen using the Batwing. Turned out the flatscreen wasn't new enough to receive OTA DTV. It only offered OTA Analog and Cable. This couple had never used a site without cable to that day. Told'em they needed a Converter Box or a new TV.

Wingard Batwing is fully HDTV capable. They offer an extenstion add-on called "Wing Man" that dramatically improves DTV reception, and it requires no tools to install. Just pop out the rubber feet on the bottom of the antenna head and install the Wing Man with plastic push pins provided. Just be sure the antenna lowers into a space that allows room for the extension.
Lynnmor
Explorer
May 26, 2013
Do you have any LED lamps? At the last place I camped there were 7 channels till I turned on the lights. Only 1 channel came in, with poor reception, with the lights on. I tested repeatedly and it was the LED lights interfering.
I have 921 type lamps that I replaced with voltage regulated LED's. Does anyone know of a good LED replacement that does not cause the above problem?
camperpaul
Explorer
May 26, 2013
Lynnmor wrote:
Do you have any LED lamps? At the last place I camped there were 7 channels till I turned on the lights. Only 1 channel came in, with poor reception, with the lights on. I tested repeatedly and it was the LED lights interfering.
I have 921 type lamps that I replaced with voltage regulated LED's. Does anyone know of a good LED replacement that does not cause the above problem?

See: "My LEDs"
Lynnmor
Explorer
May 26, 2013
camperpaul wrote:
Lynnmor wrote:
Do you have any LED lamps? At the last place I camped there were 7 channels till I turned on the lights. Only 1 channel came in, with poor reception, with the lights on. I tested repeatedly and it was the LED lights interfering.
I have 921 type lamps that I replaced with voltage regulated LED's. Does anyone know of a good LED replacement that does not cause the above problem?

See: "My LEDs"

While there is a lot of information there, and I followed that thread before, I don't see an actual test of 921 replacement lamps for TV interference.
It would be good if someone has already tested and found a good supplier to share that information.
I guess the best thing to do is buy unregulated lamps and see if they last and cause no other problems.
camperpaul
Explorer
May 26, 2013
Lynnmor wrote:
camperpaul wrote:
Lynnmor wrote:
Do you have any LED lamps? At the last place I camped there were 7 channels till I turned on the lights. Only 1 channel came in, with poor reception, with the lights on. I tested repeatedly and it was the LED lights interfering.
I have 921 type lamps that I replaced with voltage regulated LED's. Does anyone know of a good LED replacement that does not cause the above problem?

See: "My LEDs"

While there is a lot of information there, and I followed that thread before, I don't see an actual test of 921 replacement lamps for TV interference.
It would be good if someone has already tested and found a good supplier to share that information.
I guess the best thing to do is buy unregulated lamps and see if they last and cause no other problems.

There are a bunch of posts in that thread by RoyB, myself and others about RFI caused by regulated LEDs.
Lynnmor
Explorer
May 26, 2013
camperpaul wrote:
Lynnmor wrote:
camperpaul wrote:
Lynnmor wrote:
Do you have any LED lamps? At the last place I camped there were 7 channels till I turned on the lights. Only 1 channel came in, with poor reception, with the lights on. I tested repeatedly and it was the LED lights interfering.
I have 921 type lamps that I replaced with voltage regulated LED's. Does anyone know of a good LED replacement that does not cause the above problem?

See: "My LEDs"

While there is a lot of information there, and I followed that thread before, I don't see an actual test of 921 replacement lamps for TV interference.
It would be good if someone has already tested and found a good supplier to share that information.
I guess the best thing to do is buy unregulated lamps and see if they last and cause no other problems.

There are a bunch of posts in that thread by RoyB, myself and others about RFI caused by regulated LEDs.

I understand that, but all I need is a source, make or model number of a product that someone has tested with a TV. If you could point me to such a product, then there would be no need to waste time and money to test different products.