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??

Don't know about your area but tons of the digital stations are available in So Cal.

No matter where I have parked I have always had no less than 10 stations. All the local channels, plus the 4 standard PBS channels and on Sunday 6 additional religious stations! :WKey is to rescan for channels every time you change locations AND after each time you inch the antenna for better reception. Key word 'inch'. Before digital all you had to do was spin the RV antenna and you were good to go. Not with digital you have to inch it ever so little to tune it in for digital.

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??not sure what you mean by "readily available"...please explain further. every TV station in the US (and a year or so later in Canada) switched from analog to digital transmission. AFAIK none of those stations went off the air so in terms of sheer numbers there ought to be just as many stations on the air now as there were prior to the switch.everything else being equal there is a primary difference in the propagation of analog vs. digital. an analog signal will gradually fade away the farther the receiver is from the transmitter source. the programming is still usable through this fading or 'snow' until at some point it fades out altogether. a digital signal is either there or it's not. as a digital signal reaches it limit it will first exhibit what a lot call "pixelization" or "pixilated". the picture will freeze or become a jumbled mess of multi-colored squares or the picture will simply disappear. this pixelization can also occur when something temporarily comes between the transmitter and receiver. airplanes, trains, large flocks of birds, tree foliage, etc. all can cause pixelization. couple that with the relatively poor receivers built into today's TV sets and the fact that most campgrounds and RV parks are located in the country can really make it hard for RVers to receive a useable signal. many of the TV stations that were assigned to VHF frequencies (channel 2-13) in the analog days switched to UHF frequencies when the analog-to-digital switch took place even though they kept their VHF channel identity. you can do a couple of things to improve your reception of digital over-the-air (OTA) TV.first, if you have a winegard crank-up TV antenna consider changing out the head to the newer Sensar IV head. it reportedly increases UHF reception by 100% and since many TV stations are now operating in the UHF band that would be a good thing. alternatively consider adding the Winegard Wingman to your existing winegard antenna. the Wingman consists of a plastic yagi antenna that snaps onto the existing Winegard head which helps collect more UHF signal and focuses that signal to the UHF reeiver built into the head of the Winegard antenna.next, if the coax between your RV's antenna and the roof connector is more than 5-6 years old consider replacing it. coaxial cable will break down over time resulting in deteriorating performance. also, the connectors at each end are notorious for allowing moisture to seep into the cable causing further problems.lastly, if your RV space is seasonal consider mounting a residential style TV antenna onto a piece of mast and getting that antenna as high in the air as possible. the higher the antenna the better.good luck.

I generally don't have a problem tuning in Digital stations, both our sets have a signal strength meter and I turn the mast until I get the strongest signal. Then I do a search for available channels. We seem to get more channels than when the stations were analog. The exception is along the central California coast, so many ins and outs to block signals. We are still using the old Winegard antenna, no problem.

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.

Digital TV reception! | Good Sam Community

john_bet
Explorer II
Jul 15, 2013
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
Explorer III
Jul 15, 2013
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
Explorer
Jul 15, 2013
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
Explorer
Jul 14, 2013
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
Explorer
Jul 14, 2013
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
Explorer
Jul 14, 2013
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
Explorer II
Jul 14, 2013
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
Explorer III
Jul 14, 2013
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
Explorer
Jul 14, 2013
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
Explorer
Jul 14, 2013
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.

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