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Mgr1001's avatar
Mgr1001
Explorer
Sep 12, 2017

Tv antenna

Hi y'all

While leaving a camping spot this morning, I happened to look at my rearview camera, and saw my tv antenna fly off my roof. I immediately stopped and retrieved it. Seems a low hanging wire hooked it and yanked it off. It appears to be a Winegard RS-3000 or equivalent.

My question is: Can I simply splice the coax back together and remount the old antenna. There seems to be very little or no damage to it.

I am very handy with a soldering gun and able to securely remount and weather seal the unit. I'm not interested in upgrading the antenna, since I watch almost no broadcast TV and the antenna was perfectly adequate for my needs. The only time I've ever used it was to check local weather or news.

Any advice or suggestions welcome.

Miker
  • DReisinger's avatar
    DReisinger
    Explorer
    Sep 13, 2017
    I was able to replace the upper section of coax by removing the speaker over the bed and it gave me access to the mounting area of the antenna in the underside of the roof, there was the coax connector
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    Sep 13, 2017
    The cable runs in 2 parts with a splice already (at roof level is where you find the splice) I would replace the "Upper" cable rather than splice it.

    That said. if you do splice. wrap the cable starting one inch below the splice to one inch above with RESCUE tape or ANTENNA tape as these silicon tapes seal like you won't believe.
  • Roger10378's avatar
    Roger10378
    Explorer II
    Sep 13, 2017
    I have seen several RV's where there is a connector just under the roof plate. I think they build them that way so that when they put the antenna on late in the build process it is easy to connect to the other part of the cable that was installed before things were closed up. This connection makes it easy to make repairs when the cable goes bad or when something happens like it did to you.
  • Fulltimers's avatar
    Fulltimers
    Explorer
    Sep 12, 2017
    I successfully spliced in a new piece of coax after the sun ate my original.
  • WNYBob's avatar
    WNYBob
    Explorer
    Sep 12, 2017
    Yes you can splice the cable with w male ends and a barrel connector.

    This would be a good time to upgrade to a Winegard Sensar IV, rated the best RV antenna!

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