Connecting radio to Winegard batwing antenna

[pirlbeck]

I am replacing the Jensen Omni antenna that blew off last summer with a Winegard Sensar IV. With the old antenna setup the Jensen radio antenna lead was connected to a port on the back of the Jensen amplifier face plate. As this pickup camper only has one TV, can I just connect the radio antenna lead to the second TV connection on the rear of the Winegard amplifier face place, same as it was with the Jensen antenna? Or would it be better to tee it in the coax before the wall plate?

How will this affect AM radio reception? Is there any way to improve the AM reception?

Thanks!

[pirlbeck]

Anyone have any experience with these tunetrapper antenna's?

http://www.mcssl.com/store/electroniccontrolservicescorp/tune-trapper-hidden-amfm-stereo-car-antenna-tt-2c

I think I could tuck it in a cabinet and would not have to mount it on the roof. After I got to looking at it I think any antenna I mount on the roof on the old omni base plate is going to interfere with the operation of the Winegard batwing.

Thanks!

[Gdetrailer]

pirlbeck wrote:
OK, I tested this antenna setup this afternoon. As my shop sits at the very bottom of a hill that blocks the direction (Des Moines) that the closest towers are at, I drove to the highest point in town. According to TVfool.com the closest towers are over 62 miles away. A scan picked up 14 OTA TV channels which only one of them was weak and pixelating. Given my distance I can live with that.

The FM radio reception seemed pretty good, but there was no AM at all, not even a very local station less then 15 miles away. Is there such a thing as an AM/FM splitter where I could leave the FM connected to the batwing and put a separate AM antenna up? Or anyone have recommendations for a good roof mount AM/FM antenna?

Thanks!

Yeah, I expected that FM might somewhat work and AM would not.

As far as a AM/FM antenna, simply choose one, not hard to do.

HERE is a quick search at Amazon..

Now, as a primer, short length antennas perform terrible, LONGER length antennas work MUCH BETTER.

Many short antennas tend to be the rubber ducky type (14" or so), longer ones look a lot like the old time auto mast types (20"-28")..

Stay away from so called "hidden" antennas which may be a simple foil or circuit board that you stick on a window, those perform terrible.

[pirlbeck]

OK, I tested this antenna setup this afternoon. As my shop sits at the very bottom of a hill that blocks the direction (Des Moines) that the closest towers are at, I drove to the highest point in town. According to TVfool.com the closest towers are over 62 miles away. A scan picked up 14 OTA TV channels which only one of them was weak and pixelating. Given my distance I can live with that.

The FM radio reception seemed pretty good, but there was no AM at all, not even a very local station less then 15 miles away. Is there such a thing as an AM/FM splitter where I could leave the FM connected to the batwing and put a separate AM antenna up? Or anyone have recommendations for a good roof mount AM/FM antenna?

Thanks!

[pirlbeck]

OK, thanks for all of the replies and for the help. The idea to tee the radio antenna into the batwing lead came from this thread earlier this year.

https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/29559143/srt/pa/pging/1/page/2.cfm

In this thread it is not real clear where the antenna was tee'd into, whether between the wall face plate and the antenna or between the face place and the TV. When I first read it I was thinking between the face plate and the antenna, but I never gave a thought to the 12V feed up that cable to power the batwing booster and the problems/damage it could cause.

Anyway, here is where I am at on this as of now. As ScottG suggested I re-installed the Jensen wall face plate and connected the radio antenna lead to the radio antenna port on the Jensen face plate. I tested this face plate and it sent 12V up the coax just like the Winegard face plate did. I am concerned about the FM filter in the batwing amp mentioned in several posts and how it will affect the FM radio signal.

The camper is presently inside my steel shop building so I cannot test it and the last 24 hours the weather conditions have not been the best here in western Iowa. In fact, the power in our small town was out for most of the night. If conditions improve some later today I will try to get it out and test the TV and radio reception.

I still have the metal base of the Jensen Omni antenna on the roof and the hole for the coax in the roof and it would not be hard for me to install a dedicated AM/FM radio antenna if I knew it was going to be a decent improvement. Anyone have a recommendation for an antenna. Would it make sense to install an Omni antenna just for radio use?

Thanks again!

[Lynnmor]

Gdetrailer wrote:


Best bet for the AM/FM radio is to buy a external aftermarket auto replacement antenna..

Like they put on trailers for many, many years, before the last round of cost cutting. They shouldn't be allowed to advertise AM/FM when little is done to actually allow reception.

[Sam_Spade]

Gdetrailer wrote:

Best bet for the AM/FM radio is to buy a external aftermarket auto replacement antenna..

+1

Unless there is a port specifically designed for AM/FM signal split-off, you should NOT attempt this. For reasons already mentioned.

[wa8yxm]

I would use a proper splitter as well. BUT.. I am TOLD that Winegard "Filters" the FM band so the antenna will nto work for Radio

Since I almost never use radios in this RV (dont' recieve well) I have not tried. I got a real good AM radio if I need one.

[Gdetrailer]

pirlbeck wrote:
I am replacing the Jensen Omni antenna that blew off last summer with a Winegard Sensar IV. With the old antenna setup the Jensen radio antenna lead was connected to a port on the back of the Jensen amplifier face plate. As this pickup camper only has one TV, can I just connect the radio antenna lead to the second TV connection on the rear of the Winegard amplifier face place, same as it was with the Jensen antenna? Or would it be better to tee it in the coax before the wall plate?

How will this affect AM radio reception? Is there any way to improve the AM reception?

Thanks!

Most small antennas with amplifiers like Winegard have a FM "trap" built into the amp. The trap reduces the amount of FM signal passed by the antenna. This is done to prevent FM broadcasts from overloading a TV tuner on some of the channels.

You will get SOME FM, but not all that much.

As far as AM, not going to improve that, antenna length is far too short for AM wavelengths, so doubt the would be any improvement and I suspect the antenna amp does not have enough bandwidth to pass or amplify the AM band.

Best bet for the AM/FM radio is to buy a external aftermarket auto replacement antenna..

[RoyB]

ScottG wrote:

RoyB wrote:
Just keep in mind 12VDC is sent up to the BATWING ANTENNA when in use. Whereever you tap into RG Cable just be sure you will not get into the 12VDC that run along the same RG cable to power up the RF Amplifier inside the BAT WING housing...

Might keep your BATWING antenna from working normally...

Might also burn up something in your radio circuit too...

Just check for 12VDC before tapping into the RG cable circuit...

Roy Ken

Good point, a splitter could allow that 12V to back-feed into the radio.

Scott I haven't ever checked but I think the electronics in the VANGARD Antenna Wall Plate should have diodes installed in the HDTV connections points to prevent this from happening. I need to check that...



I know for sure I have 12VDC on the same RG cable feeding the BATWING OTA Antenna but do not know if there is also 12VDC feeding the main HDTV or the Bedroom HDTV RG cable feeds...

Should be an easy test to make... I guess if you used one of those NO DC PASS splitters it would work ok... I think the OP said he has a BEDROOM feed that he doesn't use...

Roy Ken

[GordonThree]

Wired correctly there should be no 12v on the output side of the antenna "box"

[ScottG]

RoyB wrote:
Just keep in mind 12VDC is sent up to the BATWING ANTENNA when in use. Whereever you tap into RG Cable just be sure you will not get into the 12VDC that run along the same RG cable to power up the RF Amplifier inside the BAT WING housing...

Might keep your BATWING antenna from working normally...

Might also burn up something in your radio circuit too...

Just check for 12VDC before tapping into the RG cable circuit...

Roy Ken

Good point, a splitter could allow that 12V to back-feed into the radio.

[RoyB]

Just keep in mind 12VDC is sent up to the BATWING ANTENNA when in use. Whereever you tap into RG Cable just be sure you will not get into the 12VDC that run along the same RG cable to power up the RF Amplifier inside the BAT WING housing...

Might keep your BATWING antenna from working normally...

Might also burn up something in your radio circuit too...

Just check for 12VDC before tapping into the RG cable circuit...

Roy Ken

[ScottG]

I ran into this same problem. I replaced the Omni directional ant. on the roof with a Jack ant. The Omni's power supply (wall plate) had a connection for the radio but the Jack ant. power supply did not.
I called Jack and they told me as long as the power supply is putting out 12V to the ant. itself, the existing Omni's P.S. would be fine.
So that's what I did; I used the old antenna's power supply for the new antenna with the radio connected to it.
It works flawlessly.

[MrWizard]

you can, but you might want to use a tv/fm splitter on that line, so as to send only the right band to the radio, and reduce possible interfernce