fizikpal
East Northport NY USA
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I have a 2002 Shasta Cheyenne with the standard TV antenna and a TV that I bought about 5 years ago. Now I never used the TV with the antenna, either didn't care, had a cable hook-up, or we brought DVD's.
Will I be able to get a broadcasted signal now? I do not have a digital receiver. Do I need to replace the antenna with a digital system?
thansk
tom
The Lynch's
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tomfl60
Arcadia
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The antenna will work ok ,but you will need a converter for the TV if it isnt digital.
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rk911
Wheaton IL
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fizikpal wrote:I have a 2002 Shasta Cheyenne with the standard TV antenna and a TV that I bought about 5 years ago. Now I never used the TV with the antenna, either didn't care, had a cable hook-up, or we brought DVD's.
Will I be able to get a broadcasted signal now? I do not have a digital receiver. Do I need to replace the antenna with a digital system?
thansk
tom
tom, there is no such thing as a "digital" antenna because there are no new TV frequencies. the FCC assigned frequency range for TV is the same today as it was the day before the analog-to-digital conversion took place. what *has* changed is that many stations that had frequency assignments for channels 2-13 (VHF band) have moved to the UHF band (14-81). for example, the ABC station in chicago (WLS-TV, channel 7) still calls itself "Channel 7" even though it has left the channel 7 frequency and is currently broadcasting in the UHF band. CBS-2 in chicago is building out a lower power UHF 'fill-in' transmitter that will operate on UHF channel 26 but it's still channel 2.
what you *will* need is either a new TV with a digital tuner or one of those digital-to-analog converter boxes. the latter can be had at most big box electronics stores and maybe even the smaller shops and is installed between the antenna and your older analog TV set. the converter will come with it's own remote and that's where you'll change channels. if you go that route be sure to get a converter that will also pass thru an analog signal as there are still a few low power analog stations out there.
you might also consider adding the Winegard Wingman toyour existing Winegard RV batwing antenna. the wingman is designed to gather in more UHF signals and focus them towards the UHF receiver in the head of the batwing antenna (VHF signals are detected on the wings of the batwing). with many TV stations moving to UHF frequencies you'll find that the wingman will help your reception.
good luck to you.
good luck.
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BFL13
Victoria, BC
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The UHF digital stations are very directional too so it is not so easy to just rotate the antenna "somewhere likely" and get some stations. This is not helped by the TV digital tuner searching for stations and only admitting it "found" stations you happened to be pointing the antenna right at. It is very frustrating that you have to know where the stations are already in order to find them!
However, from recent posts on here about this, it seems you can wade through your Tv's menu and get it to add stations if finds when you rotate the antenna some more, without dropping the ones it has already found ( Extremely Frustrating!) so there is hope for us all.
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Charlie D.
E. Texas-Orange
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Some of the converter boxes have a "strength signal" indicator for help in tuning.
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KendallP
Grants Pass, OR
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Some say that adding the "Wingman" might make your antenna more directional.
In other words, you might be getting reception just fine with your batwing without rotating. Then you add the Wingman and the signal drops. Then you point the antenna toward the the tower and the signal is stronger than it was before you added the Wingman.
Generally speaking...
If you want the most channels possible, add the Wingman for 25 bucks, or replace the head with a Jack head for about 50 bucks
Cheers,
Kendall
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fizikpal
East Northport NY USA
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I love this forum
THanks
Tom
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KendallP
Grants Pass, OR
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Charlie D. wrote:Some of the converter boxes have a "strength signal" indicator for help in tuning.
Mine has that. But you have to find the stations first.
Some guys do this by checking in 120 degree increments. Takes 3 passes with your digital tuner. Mine has the ability to rescan, but augment and not erase the channels that you just found on the last pass.
Once you get all your channels, you can fine tune the one you're watching from there. But again... if you want to change channels and it's coming from another tower, you might have to rotate the antenna. Whereas before, with the original antenna, the other tower might have come in without you getting off your heiny.
Also... lot of guys say that a new Vizio or other quality TV will have a better built-in digital tuner than most set top box-types.
Whether a new TV or a converter box, I recommend testing it out with your current antenna and take it from there.
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LadyRVer
Florida
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The wingman works for our digital TV really good. In our little B, we have the analog and had to add the converter box. What we didn't know at the time was some converter boxes have a volume control on the remote and some don't. Guess what. Ours didn't. So, TV was turned up very high but still hardly any sound.
Got a pair of computer speakers and installed them and that took care of that problem. You have to rescan each time you change locations to pull in the stations, whether with the converter/analog TV or the digital TV, if using an antenna.
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BFL13
Victoria, BC
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Our old Winegard antenna head quit and could not be fixed, so I wanted a new one with the Wingman and the indoor mod for signal strngth. Antenna head was $50 in the States on the internet but shipping was $75! Local RV shop wanted $125 for the head with Wingman.
Found a store selling Terk TV55s for $65 so thought I would try that.
I had to saw off everything but the bottom of the old batwing to attach the Terk TV55 to using the Terk's mounting block that goes on the back of it and some screws.
Inside the rig, the Terk uses 10v DC and has its own little amplifier to power the coax to the roof, so now the Winegard 12v socket is all that is used of that 12v system , and the TV coaxs and some splitters as required, go to the Terk's amp.
Gets lots of digital stations clear HD and widescreen. Love it.
Campground TV as before, no problem.
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