krobbe wrote:
Something to consider is the signal amplifier/booster is being affected by either low voltage or interference from those high draw motors.
Consider this AMPLIFIER SIGNAL BOOSTER to address your issues.
Antenna amps are a "catch 22" situation, they not only amplify the signal you want but also the noise you DON'T want PLUS the amplifier actually adds it's own internal noise to the signal.
If you have a typical Winegard "batwing" you most likely already HAVE an antenna amplifier, it is built into the antenna head (where it needs to be so it doesn't amplify as much unwanted noise).
You can tell if your batwing has an amp by the type of wall outlet you have, the amplified version will ahve a small LED, non amp version will not have the LED. The amp is powered on when the LED is lit.
Adding a second amp inline typically does not work at all, this is due to the second amp amplifying the already amplified signal plus noise plus the noise the first amp introduced..
Also a second amp may overload the TV tuner or the second amp input may overload.. The result is more noise..
Noise generated by brush type motors simply can not be avoided, it is the nature of the beast.. For those who don't understand why a brush motor can swamp the TV signal, simply put the motor uses permanent magnets surrounding the stator (stator is the shaft that turns), the stator has a series of wires wound around it. There is multiple separate windings that terminate at what is called a commutator.
The brushes ride the commutator to transfer the voltage from the case to the rotor. The commutator consists of multiple sections of brass or copper that is insulated from the rotor.
The windings are connected to the commutator.
When the rotor turns the brushes making contact with the commutator will make then break electrical connections between the sections of the commutator.
It is this switching action that creates sparks and arcs which also generate radio waves, this is the very same effect that was discovered back before "radio" as we know it was discovered.. Making arcs and sparks was the birth of early radio and was used for Morse code transmissions..
Here is a simple diagram of a DC motor
The best one can do is move the antenna and TV away from the offending device, suppress as much of the RFI generated by the offending device (IE high frequency capacitor across the brushes of the offending device), get a much larger antenna (real antenna with real gain plus higher and away from RV), turn off the offending device, move closer to the broadcast tower or just live with it..
A few things that you could try would be to remove ANY NON AMPLIFIED "splitters", these are known as "passive" splitters, they are noting more than 75 ohm resistors..
They CUT your signal IN HALF for a two port..
If you have a three port you have two ports with half signal and one port that is 1/4 of the input signal.
Four port you get 1/4 the signal on all outputs.
At my home I had a 8way passive splitter to cover my whole house.. Worked perfectly fine with analog NTSC.. Digital ATSC and I had NOTHING at any of my TVs..
I ended up having to buy a $175 AMPLIFIED 8 output COUPLER which has 8 separate LOW GAIN, LOW NOISE amplifiers (one for each port) in order to be able to get all ATSC local broadcasts.
With ATSC OTA, you most likely will just have to live with the fact that you WILL have random blockies, random freezes and jitters.. It IS the nature of the beast.
