what is best way to get TV stations in RV

[partsman01]

So wife wants to always have the ability to watch her shows on TV while away.

The new to us unit we are waiting on has I bleieve a standard winegard antennae you crank up, but I never found them much good, this one did have some area where they must have been able to hook up to a satellite system, or something.

So am curious which is the best bang for the buck, and how close does one have to be to the signal source?

I have no clue how to tell where the heck a tower would be, especially when traveling to different areas of the province or the alaska hwy.

Anyone know about TVd when traveling?

Thanks

[WNYBob]

Put the "DTV" app on your smart phone. It will point to the OTA transmitters and show its distance.
Of course this is for a directional antenna.

[Cptnvideo]

ford truck guy wrote:
^^^ I use a Winegard Traveler satellite antenna... Once I am level, I hit the button to turn it on, let it acquire the sats while I finish setting everything up... By the time I'm done its done

We also have the Winegard Trav'ler satellite antenna for Dish (Hopper 3 and 2 wireless Joeys). Push a button and wait a couple minutes.
We also have Starlink which can stream TV, although we primarily use Dish.
Roaming around Canadian Provinces could lead to signal strength issues with either system. I haven't done the homework to find out since I can't travel to Canada with my arsenal.

[Wiscampsin]

I miss the days with our crank up batwing and wingman. These modern saucer things suck.

[valhalla360]

Where do you camp typically?
Do you have good cell coverage?
How much are you willing to spend?

We full time, so we have gotten starlink this summer and a firestick (there are other brands that do pretty much the same thing) for the TV. The starlink provides internet and the firestick uses the internet to access TV shows. Easy to set up and we were watching netflix on a mountain top 50 miles from the nearest blink and you miss it town in the Yukon this summer.

Only downside is it's expensive. $150/month and $600 for equipment.

A cheaper option if you have good cell coverage is to upgrade to an unlimited plan and use the phone's hotspot feature to feed the firestick.

If you have no cell coverage, good chance, you aren't getting old school over the air tv signals...and if you do, it's the god, god and fox channels.

[wa8yxm]

This is a somewhat complex question and in part depends on where you are parked.
So here goes.

Over the air Broadcast TV.. (How I did it usually) advantages It is FREE
Disadvantages. Not all parks are in "Coverage Areas"

THe winegard Sensar IV crank up with built in wingman.. Coupled with the Winegard Sensar PRO wall plate instead of the default one.. Is rather hard to beat.

In fact I do not think there is a better RV tv antenna
have a Sensar III add the wingman

Cable TV Some parks have it and if they got it.. BEST by all standards

Satellite TV.. Depending on your antenna you may be limited (more in a bit) and you have to set up ground mount antennas every time Roof top antennas do not work if you are parked under the Evil Signal Eating Tree. (Thank you peanuts for the Kite Eating Tree).

Internet: OUCH that eats bandwidth. Now if you have Unlimited and a good signal in the campground. GO 4 IT... but many campgrounds the Cell signal is iffy and if you stream off the campground wi-fi.... Not good Well many campgrounds will throttle you and in other campgrounds your fellow campers just might (in a different way) .

How I did it
I had TWO single channel analog DVR's very programmable and very "Chatty" that is they shared files I could program a show to record on #1 from #2 or the other way around or on either of them from this laptop. Alas that company is no more. They controlled a couple of ATSC-NTSC coverters (Digital to analog) So I could download a program guide from Signals Direct.. Geed the .xml file to my software which did the needed edits to send the channel numbers and sub numbers to the DVR's and from there to the adapters and it recorded for later watching 2 shows could be recorded while I watched a 3rd (And wife a 4th) on the TV direct. Very nice.

Alas that's the one thing I miss most here in my apartment.. it's not in a good coverage area so I'm stuck with cable.

[theoldwizard1]

The higher an antenna is the better ! A 20' pole may look stupid, but it works !

You also don't need a weird looking expensive antenna. Lots of DIY instructions online. Exact dimensions are critical !

This is a good antenna, but for best reception it needs to be pointed at the transmitter. With digital TV, it usually works well or not all!

Smallish antenna

[CarnationSailor]

RF Mogul satellite antenna and DISH Network. The antenna automatically acquires the satellites. Love it!

[ford_truck_guy]

^^^ I use a Winegard Traveler satellite antenna... Once I am level, I hit the button to turn it on, let it acquire the sats while I finish setting everything up... By the time I'm done its done

[Sandia_Man]

We do most of our RVing in the four corner states where our batwing has difficulty picking up ota tv stations reliably unless we happen to be near a major city. We have been RVing 3+ decades and started with Directv and manually set up our satellite antenna. We then switched to Dish network and HD content, still setting up our satellite antenna ourselves, takes just a few minutes and a compass to lock in all 3 satellites. Last few years we use automated satellite antenna domes and by the time we have our coach set up after arriving, our HDTVs have already downloaded satellite channels.