Digital TV reception!

[DERSEQUIM]

I have heard that Digital TV Stations are not as readily available to us as the old TV Signals were? Is that true? I got on a U S Gov Website today and it showed only one station available at Birch Bay WA and None at Ocean Shores WA. We used to get the Seattle/Vancouver Locals at Birch Bay from Bellingham and Vancouver??

[john_bet]

I live in a straight line half way between Indy and Louisville. We can only get Louisville stations as thier ant. are on my side of the river and Indy's are on the far north side of Indy. I use to get stations from both north and south no problem. YUCK.

[wa8yxm]

I would like to thank the person who posted the photo of the Sure Lock, Compared to the Winegard Sensor Pro that is... not much of a device I mean you have what 4-5 LED"s (Think bars on a phone) I have a digital read out zero to 99. Way way way better.

And digital gain control too.

And more.

Someone ask about the range of the Winegard, With Wingman and sensar pro. 60-70 miles tops over normal terraine.

Or, if you like, plot on a map I-94 and Waddams Rd, St. Clair, MI.

Now plot 10 mile and Greenfield rd, Southfield MI.

That's my range on UHF, Perhaps a bit more (I do not know where 41 and 62 parked their towers) 9mi and Southfield RD (VHF High band) I can not see.

[DERSEQUIM]

Jack is on the way from Amazon. FREE I may report. Just had to sign up for a Credit Card I'll never use and Cancel in a year! At my age a Dent in my Credit Score doesn't hurt!

UPDATE: Finally heard from Winegard! The Sensor and ALL other Winegard RV Antennas will accept both type signals. Unlike what I was told by RV DEALER! AM trying to Cancel Jack order and order Wingman and enjoy the Credit on my Amazon Account!
The NEW Sensor Antenna just contains a component that works the same as Wingman.

[JJBIRISH]

Digital OTA sucks IMO almost everywhere the few channels I get pixilate or disappear… the signal strength even on the better stronger channels wanders…

Any station transmitting from more than 25 miles is questionable to non-existent and at 35 miles or more will only be a source of aggravation for most…

A lot of people recommend the Jack antenna, and I thought about one myself… but I found 3 people with them here and they worked no better than my old batwing…

When I am somewhere that has a lot of channels there are still few I would watch or maybe 5 or 6 of them have the same programing…

[DERSEQUIM]

Dick A: I had a sinking feeling that what you posted regarding the "Repeaters" was the reason we lost local signals. I worked in an Emergency Radio Control Center, back in the late 70's Early 80's. We had to abandon Lower FreQ Broadcast Bands then and later they had to upgrade again in Early 00's.
I actually particiapated in the AT&T demonstration project in the Seattle area! We took calls from the Unit Radio and responded on our Banana Phones. We located all the deadspots and weak Signals. People looked at us rather strangly when we used them and we always replied, when asked what was going on, that it was a Secret Government project! lol

[Pirate1]

wa8yxm wrote:
Well, back when I had a sticks and bricks in Detroit I got 2,4,7,20,50,56,62 and eventually 38.

now most all of those have not only tier 1 but tier 2 (some 3,4 and 5) and a couple more staions are on the list.

Where I park in St. Clair, darn little was viewable in the pre-digital era.
Today I get so much TV it took me a week to get through all I'd recorded after I left the park and wouldn't you know it,, I'm still recording here in Davison (near Flint).

There was some "pain" during the transistion but most of the stations have overcome it.

Some things you can do to improve RV receiption....

Winegard Sensar 2 is a fairly decent VHF antenna but suffers from low gain on UHF, Add wingman improves UHF gain and range.

The SENSAR PRO inside module (Replaces the wall plate or goes ahead of the box of many buttons, ONLY thing recommended to go ahead of the box of many buttons) makes a major improvement and aids in aiming the antenna even more.

I have a sensor and added the sensar pro and wingman to the setup. Is there anything to be gained by replacing the head unit with the new sensor iv head?

[RoyB]

Most of our camping is off the power grid back in the woods somewhere. We usually get 6-36 digital HDTV stations here on the EAST side of the US just about everywhere we go. These are full blown full screen HIGH DEF TV signals...

I am running VIZIO HDTV HDTV sets and the OTA BATWING with UHF Dipole antenna.

The trick I do is point the BATWING antenna toward the local town that is transmitting the NATL BROADCAST digital TV signals and when we start our digital scan from the HDTV VIZIO menu I watch the for the numbers in the digital scan start counting up. If we don't see any counting of scanned in stations then I will stop the scan and move the BATWING ANtenna just a few degrees one direction or the other and restart the scan again.

I was going to pick one of these SHURLOC Digital TV Signal finders but never did... This will allow you to find the High Def Transmitting HDTV signal from the local town before scanning into the HDTV setup menu.


We used to drag along our SAT TV things from the house on every trip but after the NATL BROADCAST went to the digital HDTV format we stopped bring along the spare SAT RCVR item along with us. Watching full blown high def TV is much better and is FREE of course... We even do this at regular camp ground using their CABLE connections. We watch the local stations in full high def TV mode by switching to the OTA antenna.

Roy Ken

[wa8yxm]

Well, back when I had a sticks and bricks in Detroit I got 2,4,7,20,50,56,62 and eventually 38.

now most all of those have not only tier 1 but tier 2 (some 3,4 and 5) and a couple more staions are on the list.

Where I park in St. Clair, darn little was viewable in the pre-digital era.
Today I get so much TV it took me a week to get through all I'd recorded after I left the park and wouldn't you know it,, I'm still recording here in Davison (near Flint).

There was some "pain" during the transistion but most of the stations have overcome it.

Some things you can do to improve RV receiption....

Winegard Sensar 2 is a fairly decent VHF antenna but suffers from low gain on UHF, Add wingman improves UHF gain and range.

The SENSAR PRO inside module (Replaces the wall plate or goes ahead of the box of many buttons, ONLY thing recommended to go ahead of the box of many buttons) makes a major improvement and aids in aiming the antenna even more.

[Mountain_Jack]

There are many movies, weekly series you can watch on your computer, by going to their website...

For instance, "Under the Dome" http://www.cbs.com/shows/under-the-dome/

:B

[mr__ed]

You may also wish to check out a "Jack" antenna. I'm already considering it. It easily replaces the current batwing antenna, is physically smaller and reportedly has better sensitivity. Last time I checked they ran around $50, a little more if you want to get rid of the crank-up mechanism entirely.

[gotsmart]

DERSEQUIM wrote:
I have heard that Digital TV Stations are not as readily available to us as the old TV Signals were? Is that true? I got on a U S Gov Website today and it showed only one station available at Birch Bay WA and None at Ocean Shores WA. We used to get the Seattle/Vancouver Locals at Birch Bay from Bellingham and Vancouver??

I'm in Ocean City, WA right now and get no digital OTA channels on my Jack antenna.

In Sequim, WA near the airport on Diamond Point I get about 14 channels, including Canadian. This includes having to change the antenna's direction to get some of them. KOMO 4 comes in good. KIRO 7 and Q13FOX can be tough to lock on.

[Dick_A]

Many television stations and communities or cooperative groups operate or operated translators (somewhat like repeaters) before the change to digital television. Due to the frequencies changes, signal propagation changes and financial considerations that came along with digital television many rural areas have lost some or all of their over the air (OTA) signals.

This issue may be compounded in the near future as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is trying to clear more spectrum for mobile communications and will be (from what I understand) incentives to give up their "assigned spectrum" for government auction to the mobile provider industry.

I am not fully aware of all the implications of the so called "repacking" of the television broadcast spectrum after these auctions but I have read there are little or no provisions for OTA translators.

I’m not very confident the issue will receive much attention as with most government issues today are generally founded in revenue issues.

Perhaps SCF JEFF will be able to shed more light on the issue as he is currently directly involved in the broadcast industry (My last gig as a broadcast engineer was fifty years ago! ? )

[DERSEQUIM]

Two years ago we were at Birch Bay and could only get the 3 Vancouver Stations. Prior to that we got all the Seattle Stations too. Now the Gov Website only shows KVOS available. Over the Air.
Even with the Wingman I wonder what the range is.
Several Digital Home type Antennas Claim to have a Range upto 150 miles under Ideal Conditions!
Before Digital we got 4 Tuson and 6 Pheonix Stations on the Wingard at our property in Florence AZ. The Gov site shows more available on Digital. Of course, as mentioned, the Narrow Band will determine a lot as far as finding the signal
Guess we'll find out when we get there!

[stickdog]

We spent two summers on the Oregon coast and had no TV reception of course there was none before the digital move. We also spent the spring of this year on the Gulf coast of Florida and only had 1 independent channel that came and went. Our present location in WV we have 3 channels, 2 come and go with temp changes during the day. Ticks me off when trying to watch Wheel of Fortune.