New OTA TV Antenna

[Chris_Bryant]

I just read in this months issue of RV-Pro (not sure if that link will work to the online version- if it does, it's on page 23) about a new Winegard Rayzar Automatic antenna- it's in a raydome, and needs only a single coax cable. Other than that, I know nothing about it, and cannot find anything on the Winegard site yet.
It must have some intelligence, but I don't know how it deals with signals from more than one direction.

[SCVJeff]

Yeah.... 🙂

[Bill_Satellite]

It's been done. Winegard won the competition hands down! SCVJeff did the testing and the results are available on this forum.

[IAMICHABOD]

Pirate wrote:
I would like to see a NEW batwing next to your NEW jack to compare them. Replace your old antenna with a brand new one means nothing for comparison purposes.

I have done it. When I bought my RV it had a Batwing that was not working, I cleaned up all connections and tested to see if it was broken, it was,so I replaced it with a new bat wing then ran a Channel Scan I was not impressed with the amount of channels that I got. This was done in my driveway here in the south bay of So Calif using my SensarPro.

I then went out and got a Wingman add on, that put my channel scan up to 47,but I had a clearance problem with the Wingman

So I opted to put a Jack on and my channel scan went up to 60

I then went with the Rayzar as you can see it fits in the same space.
I opted not to put it on the supplied 13 In. arm. I kept one arm of the Winegard mast and mounted it that way,there are instructions in the kit,it is very easy to do. This way I had it in the same space and got the maximum height when deployed.

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

The Bi-Directional feature is great and easier to use than the Jack and I get a few more stations.

[Pirate1]

Crabbypatty wrote:
I replaced my batwing with the Jackd antenna. Its powered and my stations went from barely 3 to 20+. It has been on sale at CW cost $38. One of the best mods made.

I would like to see a NEW batwing next to your NEW jack to compare them. Replace your old antenna with a brand new one means nothing for comparison purposes.

[SCVJeff]

Crabbypatty wrote:
I replaced my batwing with the Jackd antenna. Its powered and my stations went from barely 3 to 20+. It has been on sale at CW cost $38. One of the best mods made.

Yep, another broken Batwing

[Crabbypatty]

I replaced my batwing with the Jackd antenna. Its powered and my stations went from barely 3 to 20+. It has been on sale at CW cost $38. One of the best mods made.

[SCVJeff]

Be nice...

[Bill_Satellite]

rk911 wrote:

Bill.Satellite wrote:
Pointing one direction when one or more of the signals are coming from a different direction cannot be a good thing. My new TV's do not allow a secondary channel scan so if the antenna is pointed 180 degrees and the signal I am looking for is coming from 90 degrees the signal might well not be received and I have not idea with this setup how I would go about finding it. Even if I could and I was able to get the antenna pointed in that direction, doing a new scan would wipe out the others requiring me to go back and forth and do a new scan each time. Not sure how this sounds like an optimal solution.

your tv will not permit a re-scan of channels????

Sorry, did I stutter? What part did you not understand? If I scan it's a new scan. My "older" TV allowed additional channels to be added to an existing scan. Neither of my current TV's allow this option.

[MNtundraRet]

rk911 wrote:

Bill.Satellite wrote:
Pointing one direction when one or more of the signals are coming from a different direction cannot be a good thing. My new TV's do not allow a secondary channel scan so if the antenna is pointed 180 degrees and the signal I am looking for is coming from 90 degrees the signal might well not be received and I have not idea with this setup how I would go about finding it. Even if I could and I was able to get the antenna pointed in that direction, doing a new scan would wipe out the others requiring me to go back and forth and do a new scan each time. Not sure how this sounds like an optimal solution.

your tv will not permit a re-scan of channels????

He is talking about some televisions that allow an: Add Scan. The set saves the original channels found on Auto Scan and adds in the new ones found on additional scans with antenna aimed in a new direction. My older 19 inch LCD Insiginia TV could do that.

[rk911]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
Pointing one direction when one or more of the signals are coming from a different direction cannot be a good thing. My new TV's do not allow a secondary channel scan so if the antenna is pointed 180 degrees and the signal I am looking for is coming from 90 degrees the signal might well not be received and I have not idea with this setup how I would go about finding it. Even if I could and I was able to get the antenna pointed in that direction, doing a new scan would wipe out the others requiring me to go back and forth and do a new scan each time. Not sure how this sounds like an optimal solution.

your tv will not permit a re-scan of channels????

[Bill_Satellite]

Pointing one direction when one or more of the signals are coming from a different direction cannot be a good thing. My new TV's do not allow a secondary channel scan so if the antenna is pointed 180 degrees and the signal I am looking for is coming from 90 degrees the signal might well not be received and I have not idea with this setup how I would go about finding it. Even if I could and I was able to get the antenna pointed in that direction, doing a new scan would wipe out the others requiring me to go back and forth and do a new scan each time. Not sure how this sounds like an optimal solution.

[SCVJeff]

n7bsn wrote:
I agree with Bill, Height rules all.

Part of why an antenna above the roof works best is it is above all the clutter from the A/C, vent-covers, etc.

There is no substitution for height. But being a ham you already know that.. 🙂

[Winegard1]

Hi all,

We’re glad to see some discussion regarding our newly announced product, the Rayzar Automatic. However, we would like to take a minute to clear up a few things regarding this product.

The Rayzar Automatic antenna is a fully-automatic off-air antenna designed to help users determine the optimal antenna position to maximize reception. The antenna will point to the location with the MOST channels available, not the strongest signal as mentioned above. It also gives easy access to alternate antenna position locations for different channels or allows manual control of the antenna.

We understand that antenna height and obstructions affect reception, however we feel very confident with the product we have designed and how it will perform on an RV roof, and our product testing further reinforces those feelings.

We are very excited about this product and feel that RVers will share our excitement as it releases to the market.


Winegard Digital Communications

[SCVJeff]

Chris Bryant wrote:
Yeah- I wondered about height as well. I wish someone would build a real "smart" antenna for RVS, along with a TV with attention payed to receiver RF sensitivity, and the smart antenna output.
Unfortunately, it looks like that technology doesn't have a big enough market (I think it does), or wasn't marketed right.

BTW- the article is actually on 23 in the paper mag- the online version ads 10 pages for the fold out cover in this months issue 🙂

As you've seen, they used to. I had one (RCA IIRC) in the office for about 5 years and finally tossed it and the receiver. When you did a scan, it rotates all electrically phased elements finding the best signal and would memorize that position, then recall when you went to said channel. Its probably 30% larger than a Jack, but fitting it on the mast would have been a breeze. Very cool, but never took off.. too bad.