a television question

[cruising_spud]

Could I please get some input? We have a 2002 rv with an old, analog television.

I just bought a new smart tv, which my husband is going to install in the rv.

We have some kind on antennae (batwing?) on the roof which we half-heartedly tried once, didn't get any reception, and decided to not worry about. Up to now, we have always just connected to the campground cable.

I have been reading up on how to get tv stations with the new tv but have a few questions.

Am I right-

We will still be able to connect to campground cable, same way as with the old analog television.

In order to do anything with an antennae, I would probably have to buy a newer model, If so, could anyone give me some input as to which one?

Even though I know we could stream movies, this might me an issue with campground wifi speed/service. Yes?

Anything else I should be thinking about?

Thank you.

[Lynnmor]

SoundGuy wrote:

rvten wrote:
You need to turn the power button on for the antenna.

dvitale300 wrote:
Very important point - if you have a powered antennae it work work unless turned on.

This assumes the OP has a Sensar antenna with an amplified head, which may not be the case as we're talking about an older 2002 trailer here that could have a non-amplified Sensar II on it.

I suppose some may consider this "splitting hairs" but many seem to refer to that wall plate as an "amplifier" or "booster" which it is not. Although Winegard refers to it as a power supply it's not really even that but rather a "power injector" because when you push that switch ON the only thing it's doing is routing the trailer's already existing 12 vdc to antenna head that does (in the case of the Sensar III and Sensar IV) contain a signal amplifier. If you want further signal amplification replace that wall plate "power injector" with a Winegard SensarPro which does amplify (or attenuate) the incoming signal.

The switch does one more thing, it physically switches between the antenna input and the outside cable connection. Some think that it only supplies power. That is why there is virtually no reception when the switch is in the wrong position.

[SoundGuy]

rvten wrote:
You need to turn the power button on for the antenna.

dvitale300 wrote:
Very important point - if you have a powered antennae it work work unless turned on.

This assumes the OP has a Sensar antenna with an amplified head, which may not be the case as we're talking about an older 2002 trailer here that could have a non-amplified Sensar II on it.

I suppose some may consider this "splitting hairs" but many seem to refer to that wall plate as an "amplifier" or "booster" which it is not. Although Winegard refers to it as a power supply it's not really even that but rather a "power injector" because when you push that switch ON the only thing it's doing is routing the trailer's already existing 12 vdc to antenna head that does (in the case of the Sensar III and Sensar IV) contain a signal amplifier. If you want further signal amplification replace that wall plate "power injector" with a Winegard SensarPro which does amplify (or attenuate) the incoming signal.

[dvitale300]

rvten wrote:
You need to turn the power button on for the antenna.

Very important point - if you have a powered antennae it work work unless turned on.

[SoundGuy]

dockmasterdave wrote:
All the new HD over the air stations broadcast on what used to be UHF.

That's not the case at all ... while many North American television stations that formerly transmitted on a VHF frequency now do transmit in the UHF band that certainly does not apply to all. Go to the TV Fool Signal Analysis Page (in this case I randomly picked St Louis) and you'll see where some stations formerly transmitting in the VHF band still transmit there - e.g. KOMU-DT, formerly VHF Ch 8, now VHF Ch 8.1. What can be confusing are channels that formerly transmitted on VHF, now transmit on UHF, but still show up on your television as a VHF channel - that's referred to as a virtual channel. As far as your television and you are concerned it's a VHF channel but to your antenna it's a UHF transmission which in turn means whatever antenna you're using must be capable of receiving not just VHF but also UHF channels - ergo, the reason for adding a Wingman to an older Winegad Sensar antenna that was intended originally to be most effective in receiving VHF channels.

You can spend about $20 and add a "Wingman" to you old antenna.

Perhaps, but since the OP has an older 2002 trailer she could also have an earlier version Winegard Sensar II without an amplified head and if that's the case they'd be far better off to replace it with a Winegard Sensar IV which does have an amplified head and comes with the Wingman that improves UHF sensitivity.

To the OP - your first step should be to identify just what antenna system you currently have in order to figure out the most effective solution.

[Ron3rd]

The batwing is a great antenna, just familiarize yourself with how to operate it, ie, turn the booster one, aiming, etc. Most new TVs have a signal meter in them to help with aiming, check this out too.

[rvten]

You need to turn the power button on for the antenna.

[cruising_spud]

Thank you, everyone, for the responses.

This will certainly help me get the tv set up.

Again, thank you.

[RoyB]

The BATWING antenna is a great antenna to pick up the DIGITAL TV SIGNALS from the local towns... You will have to point the antenna to the TV Transmitter stations.

Your BATWING ANTENNA should look like this google photo.


If your BATWING does not have the DIPOLES shown in this photo they can be added in about five minutes and are very easy to mount. This can be purchased from AMAZON. Your BATWING will work without the added dipoles but do so much better if they are added.

Your new HDTV sets will have to scan in the digital television HDTV signals before you can can view them. Set your HDTV menu to CABLE for picking up stations from the campground or ANTENNA to pick them up from the BATWING antenna. When using the OTA BATWING antenna you also have to push the button on the antenna panel which sends up 12VDC to the BATWING antenna to power up the internal pre-amplifier (called the Booster) to make the BATWING antenna work.

We pick up 6-36 digital HDTV signals from our BATWING just about everywhere we go here on the East side of the US... It does take some getting used to pointing the BATWING crank-up OTA Antenna towards the transmitting HDTV stations before scanning them into the HDTV before viewing. This is not like the old days where you see a snowy picture and you can move the antenna back and forth to get the best view. With Digital HDTV signals it is a very good TV signals or almost nothing at all...

Actually the HDTV signals picked up by the OTA BATWING are better than most cable TV signals picked up at the campgrounds. The campgrounds are just now starting to upgrade their TV SIGNALS to the high quality HDTV modes.

Roy Ken

[dockmasterdave]

All the new HD over the air stations broadcast on what used to be UHF.
You can spend about $20 and add a "Wingman" to you old antenna.
We get great reception with ours, if we are within about 50 miles of a town with transmitters.
No tools involved, and takes about 20 seconds to install.
Where we were sitting, we went from 13 channels to over 30, just by adding the wingman.
We still keep some dvd's in case we are too far out to get any channels, but it hasn't happened yet.

[colliehauler]

Your batwing antenna should work with your new TV. Did the Netflix streaming with my own 4g network but it sucks up data usage. Campground was to sloooooww. Cable should work fine as well.

I have ordered a lot of old movies DVD for remote campgrounds that don't have cable or air access.

A lot of people use dish or direct sat TV.

[Bumpyroad]

cable, yes
antenna, try the old one
streaming, too slow
bumpy