Supplemental antenna

TurnThePage wrote:
Me thinks you both said the same thing. On mine, you turn off the booster. On yours, selecting cable turns off the booster. Six or half dozen.

That so-called "booster" or wall plate you're referring to, the Winegard RV-7042 being the most common example, is not a booster as it has no ability whatsoever to amplify the antenna signal. :R All it does is route either the cable feed to the television when switched OFF or route the antenna feed to the television when switched ON, and in this ON position it's also supplying 12 vdc to the antenna head where the actual signal boosting circuitry is located. Only if one replaces a standard non-amplified wall plate with one such as a Winegard SignalPro that does offer signal amplification / attenuation can one refer to it as a "booster". As this relates to the OP, if he intends to use a non-amplified antenna head and feed that into his rig's cable input it will work just fine as long as he sets his wall plate to CABLE. However, if he intends to use an amplified antenna head then he'd need a stand alone power supply that would power that head. Alternately, another solution would be to disconnect the cable from the rig's roof mounted antenna and switch it over to the CABLE feed running in from outside, connect his secondary powered antenna head to that cable input feed, but run the wall plate in the ANTENNA mode. Unfortunately the OP hasn't provided any detail at all as to what type of antenna he has on his rig nor what type of secondary antenna he plans to use, whether it's amplified or just passive.

TurnThePage wrote:
Me thinks you both said the same thing. On mine, you turn off the booster. On yours, selecting cable turns off the booster. Six or half dozen.

Apparently yes, a misunderstanding over the semantics of the statement.....

Me thinks you both said the same thing. On mine, you turn off the booster. On yours, selecting cable turns off the booster. Six or half dozen.

Ivylog wrote:
Yes you can hook to the cable TV input but you will need to turn off the power to your roof OTA antenna and reprogram your TV.

SoundGuy wrote:
Assuming the OP has a conventional, powered RV antenna and wall plate with a switch to send 12 vdc power to that antenna, it will automatically be disabled when he switches to the cable connection. Assuming further than this extra antenna will be passive, not powered, then it will feed that cable connection just fine.

Ed_Gee wrote:
That is not true! I have yet to see any RV that did not require the OTA antenna booster switch be turned OFF before cable input would work.

Yes, this is absolutely true. Switch that wall plate from "ANTENNA" to "CABLE", 12 vdc will be disabled to the antenna (obviously because it's now not being used :S), and the feed from the cable input on the side of the trailer will be fed directly to the television.

If you go to TVfool.com, you can find which direction "reachable" stations are located plus it will tell you the signal strength and what size/type of antenna you need. There are a number of forums out there for OTA reception that can help.

You might consider a better antenna on a 20' or taller pole. Forget the cheap antennas on ebay that have a rotator as they are gimicky and have waaay over-inflated performance claims. There are all sort of good antennas available and what you want will depend if you also want "low VHF" stations plus "high VHF" and UHF. Solidsignal.com sells a large range of brands and types of antennas. Generally speaking, the larger an antenna is, the better the reception. The larger you go, you have to consider wind and guying a mast. I've been thinking of getting a better antenna than our wimpy Winegard roof antenna and using a 20' collapsible pole.

"Proper" rotators aren't cheap. If the stations you want are aimed in say 2 or 3 directions you can always mount 2 or 3 fixed antennas.

If you have satellite TV at home, you could always set up a dish and take a receiver from home. If you have a permanent site, you can get hundreds of "free to air" (FTA) satellites and watch TV for free. This takes time to study up on what's needed and how to set it up. The stations aren't like subscription stations tho. and you'll get PBS, world news, documentary and Velocitychannel and lots of stations in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. I recently installed an FTA setup at home and watch the Velocity channel a lot and it's on 24/7.

Nothing is worse than going camping and roughing it in the great outdoors and not being able to watch TV... :E

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SoundGuy wrote:

Ivylog wrote:
Yes you can hook to the cable TV input but you will need to turn off the power to your roof OTA antenna and reprogram your TV.

Assuming the OP has a conventional, powered RV antenna and wall plate with a switch to send 12 vdc power to that antenna, it will automatically be disabled when he switches to the cable connection. Assuming further than this extra antenna will be passive, not powered, then it will feed that cable connection just fine.

That is not true! I have yet to see any RV that did not require the OTA antenna booster switch be turned OFF before cable input would work.

Ivylog wrote:
Yes you can hook to the cable TV input but you will need to turn off the power to your roof OTA antenna and reprogram your TV.

Assuming the OP has a conventional, powered RV antenna and wall plate with a switch to send 12 vdc power to that antenna, it will automatically be disabled when he switches to the cable connection. Assuming further than this extra antenna will be passive, not powered, then it will feed that cable connection just fine.

Yes you can hook to the cable TV input but you will need to turn off the power to your roof OTA antenna and reprogram your TV. I have a small old style folding rod antenna mounted to my ladder which works better than my batwing.

The longer the elements/rods on the antenna the better it will get the channels below 15. If you only want higher channels UHF, not VHF a smaller antenna will work. You can buy inline amps but check the signal to noise ratio...the more rejection the better. I use a RCA AMP1450F with SmartBoost.