Over Air TV and inverter question

[Blutoyz]

Hey All,
As I dig in to this new hobby I see that there is more to do. I have a winegard sat antenna that came with the rig but no sat boxes so I won't be doing satellite. I just want some over the air options to wire up the 2 new LCDs that are in there.

I have the original antenna on top and a coax near there (was up there for the sat) that I can connect. So I can hit you with 2 questions right now:

1. How do you find the batwing antennas for reception?
2. I don't seem to have an inverter so will have to add one. What are your thoughts about an TV/xbox and a couple of lights on a 2 batt house bank?

[wa8yxm]

The Batwing depending on the model and station is the best made As follows

VHF any batwing
UHF Any Batwing WITH WINGMAN (On the Sensar II and III that is an add on)

You should have a coax to the roof for that antenna,,, may be at the base of where the original antenna was or may have been re-tasked.

The system

Antenna coax to roof line, junction there to a box inside the RV, now in most RV's this is a wall plate with a 12 volt outlet, antenna connection, Switch and light.. THIS IS THE ANTENNA POWER SUPPLY.. Replace it with a Sensar Pro module (About 100 dollars if DIY).

My RV has a "Box of many buttons" (Matrix switch) so I added the SENSAR PRO

Antenna---Roof top connector----Sensar Pro---(Optional bomb)----TVs

Get one of the TV finder apps for yoru smart phoen TV-Antenna Helper Free is the one I use.

My only problem... TOO MUCH TV, can't watch it all

[DrewE]

As BFL said, there's no problem running the TV on an inverter. An Xbox uses a bit more power than a modern TV (around a couple hundred watts or so, I think), so you shouldn't get too small of an inverter, but 500W or 600W should be entirely sufficient and that could run fine from a pair of batteries if wired up decently well.

The lights in your camper are 12V and would not be running on the inverter.

[BFL13]

You can run the TVs etc on a 300w inverter, and two batts is fine for that.

Try to place the inverter close to the batts to minimize voltage sag under load. You can have long 120v cords to the appliances and they will not have the voltage sag problem the 12v wires have.

It can be convenient to just plug the shore power cable into the inverter--even a small 300w one. That makes all your 120v receptacles etc, "live" so you don't need to invent more 120v wiring. However, you do need to turn off the converter to prevent "feedback" that will drain your batts fairly quickly. (the converter will just knock out a small inverter though)

Also of course, don't run 120v things that exceed the inverter's limits. (fridge and water heater on gas not 120, no hairdryer, etc etc.

You can go all the way with this inverter business and get a 2000 job that can run the microwave and other big appliances (but only one at a time) but that means having a bigger battery bank too.

[Blutoyz]

rk911 wrote:

Blutoyz wrote:
Hey All,
As I dig in to this new hobby I see that there is more to do. I have a winegard sat antenna that came with the rig but no sat boxes so I won't be doing satellite. I just want some over the air options to wire up the 2 new LCDs that are in there.

I have the original antenna on top and a coax near there (was up there for the sat) that I can connect. So I can hit you with 2 questions right now:

1. How do you find the batwing antennas for reception?
2. I don't seem to have an inverter so will have to add one. What are your thoughts about an TV/xbox and a couple of lights on a 2 batt house bank?

the batwing should have a short piece of coax running from the head (where the wings attach) to a connector on the roof. do you see that?

somewhere in the RV you should find a wall plate, usually near the crank up handle. on that plate you should see a small button. push it and an LED on the panel should glow. that plate energizes the amplifier in the batwing head.

do you have a media switch box allowing you to switch the antenna, satellite, DVD players, etc. into either TV? if so be sure that TV or ANTENNA (ANT) is selected for each TV

using the owners manual for your TV scan for channels. you may have to rotate the antenna 90-degrees and scan a second time since the batwing is a directional antenna.

let us know what your results are.

Thanks for the info...I will post after I mess around with everything this weekend

[rk911]

Blutoyz wrote:
Hey All,
As I dig in to this new hobby I see that there is more to do. I have a winegard sat antenna that came with the rig but no sat boxes so I won't be doing satellite. I just want some over the air options to wire up the 2 new LCDs that are in there.

I have the original antenna on top and a coax near there (was up there for the sat) that I can connect. So I can hit you with 2 questions right now:

1. How do you find the batwing antennas for reception?
2. I don't seem to have an inverter so will have to add one. What are your thoughts about an TV/xbox and a couple of lights on a 2 batt house bank?

the batwing should have a short piece of coax running from the head (where the wings attach) to a connector on the roof. do you see that?

somewhere in the RV you should find a wall plate, usually near the crank up handle. on that plate you should see a small button. push it and an LED on the panel should glow. that plate energizes the amplifier in the batwing head.

do you have a media switch box allowing you to switch the antenna, satellite, DVD players, etc. into either TV? if so be sure that TV or ANTENNA (ANT) is selected for each TV

using the owners manual for your TV scan for channels. you may have to rotate the antenna 90-degrees and scan a second time since the batwing is a directional antenna.

let us know what your results are.

[jplante4]

I have an old Winegard batwing with a Wingman add-on and the Winegard Sensar Pro booster/signal meter. The trick with digital signals is getting the antenna aimed precisely, which the signal meter on the Sensar Pro helps you to do.

We usually pick up OTA channels everywhere we were. In Galveston, we picked up Houston channels (Ok, so it is pretty flat down there).

I'm waiting for this recently purchased antenna to arrive.
GE 33692

I was in a campground this summer and everyone had one of these on a mast. I got nothing off the batwing wingman.

LCD TVs draw more than LED. You may want to look 100-200 watts of solar to keep the house jars topped off.