As a new RV owner, I am struggling to understand the operation of the wall plate where the 2 cables attach, one from the antenna, and the other from the cable input jack mounted on the rear left of the trailer. Since there is only 1 cable jack on the wall plate going to the TV, how is it determined which of the 2 sources is routed to the TV if there is a signal available from the antenna and one from a connected cable provided by the campground? There is nothing about this in the manual. Thanks for any help provided.

The cable inlet goes to the cable port on plate.The antenna goes to the antenna port.The output of the plate goes to the TV.Which make and model of wall plate do you have?

There are electronics and 3 coax input\outputs (1 in from antenna, one in from cable jack and one out to TV) on the back of the wall plate.

The little push button on the front makes the decision. Button in, green light on, Antenna. button out, red light off, cable input. Go to Winegard website, winegard.com. and look for instructions and pictures.edted to change red to green...

Here are the instructions, and pictures. Please read both pages.... How to install and operate TV antenna/cable switch.

Thanks for the replies folks, There's no model # on the plate, it came with the RV & its Sensar III Winegard antenna. It has one cable port on the front, an automotive 12V jack, a small button that when pressed cycles a green LED. Mounted on its backside, there is a circuit board with electronic components, and 3 cable ports, 1 with a black cable on it that comes from the RV cable jack, the other with a white cable that comes from the digital antenna, and nothing on the third one. I think I now understand that the antenna will feed over-the-air signals only when the the green LED is on, and when it's OFF, the cable connection is the source feeding the TV. Not sure what the empty 3rd jack in the back is for, or how you would select it if there was a 3rd source to plug into it. Is it likely that the antenna is an amplified one, with electronics in it? Unfortunately, there's no TV signals where I am, so I cannot test it. I will try feeding the cable jack on the RV with an NTSC TV signal and see what happens with the LED OFF. Thanks again

Winegard Sensar III wall plate | Good Sam Community

SoundGuy
Explorer
Jul 17, 2017
neschultz wrote:
There are electronics and 3 coax input\outputs (1 in from antenna, one in from cable jack and one out to TV) on the back of the wall plate.

The OP has told us he has a Sensar III antenna so his Winegard wall plate contains no "electronics" as it has no ability to amplify the signal. When the switch is depressed and the light is on the wall plate routes 12 vdc power to the antenna head which does contain an amplifier that does boost signal strength. That switch also routes the output from the antenna head to the wall plate's output connectors, one on the front of the wall plate, a second located on the PC board which can be connected to a second television set. When the switch is retracted, the light goes out, 12 vdc is disconnected from the antenna head, and the cable feed located the side of the RV instead of the antenna head is routed to those two output coax connectors. NO "electronics" involved.

Yes, one can still buy an amplified Winegard wall plate for older non-amplified Sensar I and Sensar II heads but there's little reason to these days when the better solution is to replace the older non-amplified Sensar with the latest amplified Sensar IV which includes the Wingman UHF array.

If the OP wants to improve reception I'd recommend he add a Winegard Wingman to his Sensar III, in effect making it a Sensar IV. The next improvement would be to replace that non-amplified wall plate with a Winegard SensarPro which does offer +/- 10 db of signal amplification / attenuation. I've done both.
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Jul 18, 2017
The Wall plate is a multi function device, there also should be a 3rd port (TV-2) on the back.

But here is how it operates. And a suggestion...

You have a 12 volt outlet (Basically useless)
A switch
A light
And an antenna connection (TV-1) on the front

Switch on.. It suppplies battery voltage to the antenna up top (On the roof) where the booster is located. And SELECTS the antenna as SOURCE.

Switch off, it does not pass power to the roof. and selects CABLE as the source.
(FOr both TV-1 and TV-2 I might add.

Suggestion.. Replace it with a SENSAR PRO. Fits the same opening but you will have to do a bit of work to connect TV-1.. All the same functions as above save the 12 volt outlet.. and a bunch more

Adjustable gain 2nd pre-amp
Signal strength meter
Scanner
Audio feed back

And it still selects CABLE if you wish
neschultz
Explorer
Jul 18, 2017
Wow, SoundGuy! That is undoubtably a better and more detailed explanation than mine.

But - PC boards, switches, leds, coax connectors, etc. are all electronic components.
SoundGuy
Explorer
Jul 18, 2017
neschultz wrote:
Wow, SoundGuy! That is undoubtably a better and more detailed explanation than mine.

But - PC boards, switches, leds, coax connectors, etc. are all electronic components.

Hey, at least you didn't refer to this Winegard wall plate as a "booster" which so many erroneously do. :R
Johno02
Explorer
Jul 18, 2017
But the SensarPro wallplate is... And it works WELL. However, regardless of how strong your siginal is, some digital stations may still show "breakup" or interruped picture. I can receive a fairly local station here at home, It shows a full 5 bar signal strength, but still get pixelation sometimes. It seems to be worse in heavy wooded areas.
TXJax
Explorer
Dec 15, 2017
SoundGuy wrote:
neschultz wrote:
There are electronics and 3 coax input\outputs (1 in from antenna, one in from cable jack and one out to TV) on the back of the wall plate.

The OP has told us he has a Sensar III antenna so his Winegard wall plate contains no "electronics" as it has no ability to amplify the signal. When the switch is depressed and the light is on the wall plate routes 12 vdc power to the antenna head which does contain an amplifier that does boost signal strength. That switch also routes the output from the antenna head to the wall plate's output connectors, one on the front of the wall plate, a second located on the PC board which can be connected to a second television set. When the switch is retracted, the light goes out, 12 vdc is disconnected from the antenna head, and the cable feed located the side of the RV instead of the antenna head is routed to those two output coax connectors. NO "electronics" involved.

Yes, one can still buy an amplified Winegard wall plate for older non-amplified Sensar I and Sensar II heads but there's little reason to these days when the better solution is to replace the older non-amplified Sensar with the latest amplified Sensar IV which includes the Wingman UHF array.

If the OP wants to improve reception I'd recommend he add a Winegard Wingman to his Sensar III, in effect making it a Sensar IV. The next improvement would be to replace that non-amplified wall plate with a Winegard SensarPro which does offer +/- 10 db of signal amplification / attenuation. I've done both.

Brand new newbie here with a 2007 Keystone outback.

I just swapped out an RV-6004 (Sensar I?) head for a Sensar IV head. The Wall plate has only the 12V socket (which I like because I plug in my XM radio), but no splitter or anything. Just two cables hanging inside the ceiling.

Is the Sensor Pro really that good? What would the connection for an amplified antenna's wall plate really be? and Does anyone know the model number for the wall plate that would go with a Sensor IV? Winegard's "for all models" instructions are not helpful.

Thank you so very much.
SoundGuy
Explorer
Dec 15, 2017
TXJax wrote:
Is the Sensor Pro really that good? What would the connection for an amplified antenna's wall plate really be? and Does anyone know the model number for the wall plate that would go with a Sensor IV? Winegard's "for all models" instructions are not helpful.

Little confused by your question :h - the Winegard SensarPro doesn't require the use of any "wall plate" as it replaces the wall plate, the biggest difference being it offers +/- 10 db of signal gain / attenuation which a conventional passive wall plate does not. The antenna cable feeds the SensarPro input, 12 vdc supplied by the trailer is connected to the SensarPro to drive it and is also routed to your new Sensar IV antenna head which contains a signal amplifier of it's own, and the SensarPro provides 2 outputs which can be used to feed up to 2 television sets.
GaryS1953
Explorer
Dec 15, 2017
"the Winegard SensarPro doesn't require the use of any "wall plate" as it replaces the wall plate,"

Pardon me for jumping in, but does this mean the SensarPro Wallplate removes my existing 12 volt plug?
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Dec 15, 2017
Yes it does but that outlet is low current.. you can always install an outlet fronm Auto zone/Pep Boys/Discount Auto/O'Riley's et-al next to the wall plate
SoundGuy
Explorer
Dec 15, 2017
GaryS1953 wrote:
"the Winegard SensarPro doesn't require the use of any "wall plate" as it replaces the wall plate,"

Pardon me for jumping in, but does this mean the SensarPro Wallplate removes my existing 12 volt plug?

Sure, but if retaining that 12 vdc outlet is so important then just leave it as is, mount the SensarPro in a surface mount box as I did and locate it near the wall plate, then run +/- 12 vdc from the wall plate to the SensarPro, and simply connect the coax cables from the wall plate to the SP. In my case, I instead removed the wall plate and built a custom box with a 1/4" TS jack for +/- 12 vdc and added kill switches for the stereo and SensarPro for those times we may be dry camping and I want to minimize draw on the battery.