RV Television Antenna Options
Our 2012 fiver came with the standard Winegard crank up antenna. At some point I saw where folks were saying good things about the King Jack replacement head and got one. It did improve reception some...
Forum Discussion
In HF ham radios, 3dBm is worth 1/2 an "S" in signal strength,and I believe a doubling of the amount of watts transmitted.
See "dBm as a power level" chart, and look up 1w vs 2w, vs 4w.
transmitting power
Of course, how good your propagation is of those watts vs antenna selection is important in ham radios, but in our case here, we are looking at efficiency in receiving the signal strength strong enough to saturate the TV's receiver to get full audio and picture strength on the screen. The stronger the signal, the better the chance you'll still get reception in cloud cover and during rain storms. Rain will dilute your TV signal strength considerably, causing all kinds of picture problems during heavy down pours.
I don't watch too much TV while out in the Travel Trailer, but it's very nice to put up my batwing in Quartzsite after a long day at the gem and mineral show, and pull in 4 or 5 stations 50 miles south of us that serve Yuma, from Plomosa Road. Last time I was there, everyone was telling me my antenna was aimed the wrong direction, they were all pointed north. I was pointed about 195 to 200 degrees, at some Yuma based stations from mountains on the other side of the Colorado River in CA and getting great reception on my little 1080p 22" Samsung LED TV, only pulling 19w off the battery. YMMV... Just sharing with you what worked for me that trip to "Q". I had a lot of disbelievers, until they came inside and saw what was on my TV.
I may have a cr*ppy little 21 ft travel trailer, but it has a good surplus telecom AGM battery, a great TV and a great antenna for pulling in TV signals.
See "dBm as a power level" chart, and look up 1w vs 2w, vs 4w.
transmitting power
Of course, how good your propagation is of those watts vs antenna selection is important in ham radios, but in our case here, we are looking at efficiency in receiving the signal strength strong enough to saturate the TV's receiver to get full audio and picture strength on the screen. The stronger the signal, the better the chance you'll still get reception in cloud cover and during rain storms. Rain will dilute your TV signal strength considerably, causing all kinds of picture problems during heavy down pours.
I don't watch too much TV while out in the Travel Trailer, but it's very nice to put up my batwing in Quartzsite after a long day at the gem and mineral show, and pull in 4 or 5 stations 50 miles south of us that serve Yuma, from Plomosa Road. Last time I was there, everyone was telling me my antenna was aimed the wrong direction, they were all pointed north. I was pointed about 195 to 200 degrees, at some Yuma based stations from mountains on the other side of the Colorado River in CA and getting great reception on my little 1080p 22" Samsung LED TV, only pulling 19w off the battery. YMMV... Just sharing with you what worked for me that trip to "Q". I had a lot of disbelievers, until they came inside and saw what was on my TV.
I may have a cr*ppy little 21 ft travel trailer, but it has a good surplus telecom AGM battery, a great TV and a great antenna for pulling in TV signals.
