Replacing Crank up Antenna Suggestions?

[GACamper]

Thinking about replacing our Crank up TV Antenna with a fixed Roof Mount TV Antenna. I've seen a few on campers going down the road that looks to to stand about a foot tall.
As anybody else replaced their crank up antenna? Does anybody have any suggestions on which make or model of TV Antenna to go with. Not interested in a Satellite System...Thanks!

[az99]

MNtundraRet wrote:
AZ99:

Judging from your dislike for the Sensor Pro, I would suggest you have other problems from just using the unit.

How far are you from the stations you are trying to get? Are there any mountains, or hills over 500 feet in your path?

Also; it looks like you did your own installation of your current set-up. You most likely have a loose connector, or cable pulling loose from the connector. I would check all connections on the back of the plate, plus those going to the TV. If you go through the switch-box (BOMB) I would run the coaxial directly to the TV to rule out bad connections from the BOMB.

Make sure you disconnect and clean the coaxial connection to the antenna on the roof. This is the most likely place for wrecking incoming signals.

By the way. By complaining about your equipment you are the only one suffering about lack of stations. The rest of us would like to help but we could care less if you refuse to accept help and put the blame where it really belongs.

I don't have a problem and was not looking for help. I simply gave my opinion that the device mentioned was not worth wasting the money on. If you read all the posts you will see another poster agreed.
Thanx for offering your help.

[SCVJeff]

Trust me, I don't like doing useless scans any more than you do. And while TV Fool, and other OTA pointing programs get you in the area, they still don't allow you to peak the antenna, and there are very very few TV's that have that capability any more.

As far as the built-in amp, it does work. I did the testing on it to see what each step from 0-20 actually did. IF you fiddled yours and saw no difference, either the station was so strong that the TV simply didn't need the gain (or loss), or you're so far out that the amp did you no good to begin with. Either way, now that you have it, get to know and trust what it's telling you, including matching the receive level on the Sensar to where the TV actually starts to recover a picture. Once you kinda know where that is its easy to do a scan and realize what the Sensar is telling you just won't make pix on the TV, the go for another direction, or a book.

I love my expensive toys to do the testing. But when camping, what I want is to do the antenna pointing dance, get it done, and go out to stoke the fire.

[az99]

RLS7201 wrote:


You make a good point about finding the strongest channel. Now go back and read the instructions and learn how to force the Sensar Pro to othere channels so you can see where they're at. It's not as worthless as you think. It does require some effort on your part.

Richard

I know how to then rotate the antenna 90º and scan and fine tune 3 more times to cover all areas. The instructions tell you to scan with your TV where the most channels were. But without knowing which channels are where you may still not have been aimed in the direction you really want to be. You still need to know at least 1 of the channels that is in the direction you are shooting for.

Obviously we have a different opinion of the worth of this device. 🙂

[MNtundraRet]

AZ99:

Judging from your dislike for the Sensor Pro, I would suggest you have other problems from just using the unit.

How far are you from the stations you are trying to get? Are there any mountains, or hills over 500 feet in your path?

Also; it looks like you did your own installation of your current set-up. You most likely have a loose connector, or cable pulling loose from the connector. I would check all connections on the back of the plate, plus those going to the TV. If you go through the switch-box (BOMB) I would run the coaxial directly to the TV to rule out bad connections from the BOMB.

Make sure you disconnect and clean the coaxial connection to the antenna on the roof. This is the most likely place for wrecking incoming signals.

By the way. By complaining about your equipment you are the only one suffering about lack of stations. The rest of us would like to help but we could care less if you refuse to accept help and put the blame where it really belongs.

[az99]

SVC Jeff-Sorry you don't like my opinion. I said it is worthless without knowing the available channels. And by another post I am not alone.

As far as I am concerned it has shown me nothing more than adding one more thing to fail(which my 1st one did after just a few uses) and one more thing to draw power while boon docking.

For someone with your knowledge of this stuff I agree it may have worth. The average RV owner that thinks this is a miracle device to help find OTA channels without knowing what is where, will be disappointed.

Even on weak channels I have not seen any difference by adjusting the amp setting.

My old method of checking antenna web for channels and direction then turn the batwing that way, scan channels on TV and fine tune with the TV's built in signal strength meter worked just as well and was probably quicker.

[RLS7201]

az99 wrote:
You still need to know the channels. The thing will tell you the strongest channel is 32 for example aiming north. That is great but 32 happens to be 1 local spanish channel and then you let your TV scan for 30 minutes and find out you have 1 worthless channel. In this example all the network channels were to the SW. So either guess again or get out the laptop.

So unless I knew to set the Sensar to channel 17 for example and rotate the antenna until I get the best signal on 17 using the strongest signal was worthless. I still have to go to a site like antenna web and see what channels are available and it shows me what direction they are in.

Like I said the Sensar is worthless unless you know the channels or get lucky and have the channels you want where the scan points you.

You make a good point about finding the strongest channel. Now go back and read the instructions and learn how to force the Sensar Pro to othere channels so you can see where they're at. It's not as worthless as you think. It does require some effort on your part.

Richard

[SCVJeff]

Absolutely not true. Just because it shows OTA channels by no means makes it "worthless", its still showing you whats where so you can do a scan that gets you some results. It also has an adjustable line amp to help pick up losses in the RV. So I fail to see how its "worthless".

Simply put the Sensar in Scan, find the channels and peak them before you do your scan on the TV That's about as straight forward as it gets. If you insist to know what ATSC channel the Sensar picked up before turning on the TV and looking, that information is available in a 200 page document from the FCC.

[az99]

You still need to know the channels. The thing will tell you the strongest channel is 32 for example aiming north. That is great but 32 happens to be 1 local spanish channel and then you let your TV scan for 30 minutes and find out you have 1 worthless channel. In this example all the network channels were to the SW. So either guess again or get out the laptop.

So unless I knew to set the Sensar to channel 17 for example and rotate the antenna until I get the best signal on 17 using the strongest signal was worthless. I still have to go to a site like antenna web and see what channels are available and it shows me what direction they are in.

Like I said the Sensar is worthless unless you know the channels or get lucky and have the channels you want where the scan points you.

[Bill_Satellite]

az99 wrote:

Johno02 wrote:
Winegard makes a new control panel which helps aim the antenna, and may boost reception a bit.

Don't waste your money. It is called the SensarPro. It doesn't improve signal and just complicates aiming the antenna. If I hadn't cut a hole in the wall to mount it, I would throw it away. You need to first know all the real channel #'s of what is available in the area to make it useful.

It's possible you are not using the Sensar Pro correctly as it is an extremely simple unit to use, does allow for proper pointing of the antenna, requires no knowledge of the channels #'s (you can use that option but it's not required) and adds a secondary in-line amplifier. It's the best OTA device I have ever added to my current Batwing setup.
All that's necessary is to turn it on, raise your antenna, rotate until you find the strongest available signal and do your channel scan. The gain setting only needs to be adjusted if you are getting weak signals but that's a nice option to have since nothing else would be available to boost that signal.

[donandmax]

az99 wrote:

Johno02 wrote:
Winegard makes a new control panel which helps aim the antenna, and may boost reception a bit.

Don't waste your money. It is called the SensarPro. It doesn't improve signal and just complicates aiming the antenna. If I hadn't cut a hole in the wall to mount it, I would throw it away. You need to first know all the real channel #'s of what is available in the area to make it useful.

X 2....Yeah what he said...

[donandmax]

If you get rid of your crank-up you'll be sorry. My batwing with wingman attachment cant be beat except for satellite..Stay with the batwing..Amplified of course. Those omni directionals are a waste of money...All of them

[az99]

Johno02 wrote:
Winegard makes a new control panel which helps aim the antenna, and may boost reception a bit.

Don't waste your money. It is called the SensarPro. It doesn't improve signal and just complicates aiming the antenna. If I hadn't cut a hole in the wall to mount it, I would throw it away. You need to first know all the real channel #'s of what is available in the area to make it useful.

[SCVJeff]

The Jack antenna is just OK, but it absolutely does not perform as good as a working Batwing/ wingman combo. That plus there is no substation for height, and any ham or radio type reading this will back that up. IF you insist on changing out the antenna to an inferior Jack, don't make it worse by restricting its operation to the roof level.

Bottom line: Short of an omni-directional antenna, a roof mounted Jack is about the biggest step back you could take.

[WyoTraveler]

Never compared my Jack antenna with the newer crank up but I've had no problems getting reception on my Jack antenna. One big advantage is I don't have to worry about forgetting to crank it down.

[GACamper]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
Do a search here for Batwing vs jack antenna. Your Batwing with an added Wingman attachment is a superior performing antenna. Being able to raise the antenna above the surrounding obstructions also make it perform substantially better.

Thanks for the information...This looks interesting