Best TV antenna

[rowdybuckster]

I have a 2008 sandpiper fw that you have to raise and lower the antenna from inside, and I also have a antenna boost on it, but the places we camp most of the time, we sometimes don't get regular TV reception. Is there a type or model of antenna that would do a better job for us than a factory antenna that comes with the camper? We don't want anything like
Dish, direct TV. Don't wont to set it up or pay there fees.

[SCVJeff]

SoundGuy wrote:

rockhillmanor wrote:
You also have to move the antenna real slow with digital.

One "advantage" of the Jack antenna is that it offers a wider angle of acceptance, meaning you don't have to be quite so careful when turning it. That however comes at the price of maximum sensitivity, which IIRC SCVJeff's tests demonstrated isn't as good on average as the Sensar IV. FWIW, I've owned both and have returned to the Sensar IV powered by a SensarPro.

Yep..And as I’ve said in the past, anyone that has a Jack that performs better that a Batwing, has a broken Batwing. And unfortunately there are more than just a few of those

[IAMICHABOD]

Try the JACK antenna, I changed out mine to it and got very good results.
I put one on my RV for 2 reasons, the bat wing was only marginal and the addition of the Wing Man was not an option because of it's size, it would not clear my A/C on the roof. Where the Jack would.

I have had great luck with it and compared it with others in our camping group that had the BatMan, when out together and got as good or better reception as they did.

I found a new one that is not much bigger and fits in the same space.

It is The Rayzar
][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/TgLwTbbl.jpg" height=220>

In a non scientific test I was able to get 20 more channels from it when doing a scan on my TV. One nice thing about it is, its Bi-Directional and gets larger field of coverage than the Jack.
On a recent outing I found that it outperformed the Jack at the same place that I had camped at before.

[SoundGuy]

rockhillmanor wrote:
You also have to move the antenna real slow with digital.

One "advantage" of the Jack antenna is that it offers a wider angle of acceptance, meaning you don't have to be quite so careful when turning it. That however comes at the price of maximum sensitivity, which IIRC SCVJeff's tests demonstrated isn't as good on average as the Sensar IV. FWIW, I've owned both and have returned to the Sensar IV powered by a SensarPro.

[SoundGuy]

.

[RollandB]

I've had both the Sensor 4 and Jack antenna. If you camp where low branches are be warned the Jack isn't built to withstand much contact with the low branches. I know first hand. Having used both I didn't see a big difference between either.

[rockhillmanor]

rowdybuckster wrote:
I have a 2008 sandpiper fw that you have to raise and lower the antenna from inside, and I also have a antenna boost on it, but the places we camp most of the time, we sometimes don't get regular TV reception. Is there a type or model of antenna that would do a better job for us than a factory antenna that comes with the camper? We don't want anything like
Dish, direct TV. Don't wont to set it up or pay there fees.

You also have to move the antenna real slow with digital. With the analog TV's all you had to do was give that dial a spin and you'd land on signals. No so with the digital. Inch it real slow to pull in a signal.

When you pull into a CG look at what direction everyone has their antenna pointed. They have already done all the turning to get a good signal direction for you! At least you know where to start!:W

Full timer here and no matter where I parked I never had less than 8 channels. Also look at the tree branches sometimes you have to inch it to go between a big branch or trunk.

[SoundGuy]

rowdybuckster wrote:
I have a 2008 sandpiper fw that you have to raise and lower the antenna from inside, and I also have a antenna boost on it, but the places we camp most of the time, we sometimes don't get regular TV reception. Is there a type or model of antenna that would do a better job for us than a factory antenna that comes with the camper?

I'm surprised SCVJeff didn't reference to the exhaustive tests he did a couple of years ago comparing the Winegard Sensar to the King Controls Jack antenna.

And FWIW, a rant, because I see this erroneous information posted ALL the time in these discussions - that simple wall plate you have is NOT an "antenna booster", heck it's not really even a power supply even though it's often referred as such by retailers. It's probably best described as a power injector, meaning that when you turn it on by pushing the button the little light that illuminates merely indicates that 12 vdc is being supplied to the antenna which does have an amplified circuit in the head. There's is no signal amplification - i.e. boost - provided by that wall plate unless you've replaced it with a power injector that does have a purpose designed amplifier within it, such as the Winegard SensarPro which I do have and which can provide up to 10 db of signal boost.

Rant off. 😉

To the OP - if what you have is a Winegard III about the best way to improve reception is to add a Winegard Wingman to it. If what you have is a Sensar IV then you already have a Wingman, in which case you'd want to replace that wall plate power injector with a Winegard SensarPro, which is about as good as OTA RV antennas can deliver.

[ford_truck_guy]

I upgraded my antenna by adding the Wingman.... It actually did help my reception...
It helps IF you know which direction to point it in ... I have a few apps on my IPhone that help with that...
#1 - is a compass
#2 - TV Towers - -shows which direction to face the signal head on
#3 - transition.fcc.gov-- shows you signal strength and direction

Joe

[Dave_H_M]

I am surprised that rockhill was the only one that mentioned scanning with the TV"s.

I get diddly unless I scan using the menu on the TV.

I cheat a little on the original set up and peek around and see how the permanent looking sites have the bat wing adjusted for direction.

[wildtoad]

The batwing pictured in a previous post is about as good as it gets for OTA tv reception. You may want to replace the current black antenna booster with the Sensar Pro which has more features and let's you really zero in on a station. There newer antennas from the same manufacturer that help reduce the directionality but for overall reception of the batwing is hard to beat.

[MFL]

rattleNsmoke wrote:
I hope you have that tree-topper grounded...

It looks like it may be grounded to the military gas container below it.:E

It is a great idea, using a mast, to get higher. I do the same, with a Jack ant, when more remote, and my factory pos Omni ant won't work. My mast is only about 4' higher, than my AC.

Jerry

[rattleNsmoke]

I hope you have that tree-topper grounded...

[Tom_M1]

Sometimes the only solution is to get the antenna up higher. I purchased a set of military surplus aluminum mast sections on ebay. These are 4 foot sections that stack together. I paid about $75 for a set of 12. The photo below shows about 6 sections. Any higher would require guy lines.

[0rion]

I added a wingman to mine and noticed no difference at all. Like SCVJeff said...if it isn't there it just isn't there. One of the places I camp every once in a while I would pick up 1 or 2 channels barely.....added the wingman thinking that would put me over the hump and I would be able to at least get those 2 clearly. Haven't picked either one up since. It's almost like the wingman hurt my reception a little.