Somewhere at home I have the name of one of the Wineguard mobile product engineer that I want to call about this. I met him awhile back chasing down another rumor.
But, back to Jhilley's report of Winegard claiming that the antenna is directional for "digital" is still a myth. This is on the assumption that ALL digital transmitters are on UHF and hence are "digital" directional. Well gee, what about the hundreds or thousands of analog UHF LP's & translators, and those full power digital transmitters that elect to stay on VHF. Kinda turns the speakers statements upside down ..
Wow. What a great place to get information. Ask what time it is and find out how to make a clock. Fun reading and who knows, I might want to make a clock. Thanks again, everybody.
SCVJeff wrote: Somewhere at home I have the name of one of the Wineguard mobile product engineer that I want to call about this. I met him awhile back chasing down another rumor.
But, back to Jhilley's report of Winegard claiming that the antenna is directional for "digital" is still a myth. This is on the assumption that ALL digital transmitters are on UHF and hence are "digital" directional. Well gee, what about the hundreds or thousands of analog UHF LP's & translators, and those full power digital transmitters that elect to stay on VHF. Kinda turns the speakers statements upside down ..
Actually he didn't say all digital transmissions were uni-directional, he said that all UHF transmissions were uni-directional. One would have to just know that Channel 14 and higher were uni-directional. There are evidently two di-pole antennas incorporated in the Sensar and the UHF di-pole must have a reflector element behind it.
"evidently" doesn't get it. We need a donor Winegard antenna to tear apart. I have always wondered about these antennas. I have a 36 element uhf/vhf top of the line Channelmaster 3671 beam attached to my house and the Winegard out performs it, both on VHF and UHF, in a deep fringe area.
Here is some info to confirm Winegards uni-directional claim: http://www.winegarddirect.com/viewitem.asp?p=ANWGS2200
It clearly shows the lobe of the UHF signal as being on one side and the VHF being on two sides. As I stated previously, I must be getting the UHF signal from a bounce off a hill, because my property backs up on a hill side. It still mystifies me how the Winegard, in such a small package, out performs a 173" beam.
I'm visiting one of our stations in Texas this week and coincidently spotted this exact antenna (even Gray) in the shop. IF it can be opened, I'll have pics of it before I leave tomorrow.
Cliford wrote: If you don’t have a pass though converter and the station is not digital than you will get no signal.
Aim up by Seattle and no one transmits digital yet.
If I know that I know now I would have bought a pass though converter.
The greater Sea-Tac area has 14 different digital stations currently (antennaweb.org)
One thing for all to remember is that, while the picture is great when the signal is strong, you will get no picture from an overly weak signal. In my comparisons in TX, you can sometimes pull a weak but still watchable (snowy) analog signal but the digital signal will not be strong enough for the same channel to come through. This is called the cliff effect or digital cliff.
Here are several ideas and solutions about tv antennas and digital TV.
An antenna gathers weak signals and delivers the signals to the receiver at small microvolt levels. There's nothing special required to receive digital, analog, or even morse code signals! If you are located near the new digital transmitter towers, no problem. You could even use a pair of old fashioned rabbit ears, or the small circular UHF loop antenna.
In fact, the typical RV antenna is just that, a fancy rotating rabbit ear antenna with a preamplifier to increase the signal level. However, if the new digital UHF signals are now weaker than the analog channel signals in your area, you may need to increase the height of an antenna. At VHF and UHF, height is the key.
You can't just raise the height of a motorhome antenna, so install a high gain multi element yagi antenna (cost about $40) up to about 20 or 25 ft. on a tv mast mounted permanently to a pole. If the signals generally come from the same direction, no rotator is needed. In my case, I need to turn the antenna to Palm Bch, Orlando, and Ft. Myers areas so a rotator is desirable, or use the "armstrong" rotator (turn the mast by hand).
Perhaps in the near future, Winegard will produce a new RV UHF digital antenna with more height. For now, when on the road, use four or five sections of 5 ft. tv mast, and support the antenna at the rear or at the awning poles of the RV.
DM
summerwinds48 wrote: You can't just raise the height of a motorhome antenna, so install a high gain multi element yagi antenna (cost about $40) up to about 20 or 25 ft. on a tv mast mounted permanently to a pole. If the signals generally come from the same direction, no rotator is needed. In my case, I need to turn the antenna to Palm Bch, Orlando, and Ft. Myers areas so a rotator is desirable, or use the "armstrong" rotator (turn the mast by hand).
As I previously stated, my motorhome is currently sitting under a high gain multi element 14 and 1/2 foot beam and my gray Winegard works better. Sometimes bigger is not better. The coax to the beam on the stick house has all been replaced, so that is not a problem. This is on analog. From what I have read, digital will be worse with either a signal or no signal with no in betweens.
For the most part multi-element antennas don't add more gain, but add directional and noise canceling characteristics to the antenna so that a clean signal may be amplified. The most important characteristic of most antennas is their signal to noise ratio. The Sensar antenna is a very good antenna. As the frequency goes up, the signal becomes more line of sight. With digital signals rejection of reflected signals which cause ghosting on VHF channels isn't as much of an issue. Tuning digital signals is a lot like setting up a satellite dish. You have to make sure that there aren't obstacles between the receiving antenna and the transmitting antenna.
Well, the batwing I have here is a gray residential, non-amplified model whose seams are welded (glued) on both ends and just won’t yield, and I don’t want to ruin the weather seal on this antenna… Looking through a hole a see that looks to be a matching coil and a partial piece of wire that might be a diapole, but it's sure no match for a real high gain deep fringe antenna.Still gonna call Winegard about this as mine is directional off both sides of the antenna in the same direction as VHF.
* This post was
edited 08/08/08 01:12pm by SCVJeff *
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