Best RV TV antenna? Batwing of omnidirectional?
m...@privacy.net
Get a directional antenna that has to be "aimed" at the
towers?
Or do the omni- directional units work well too?
Keeping complexity down is an issue so I am leaning
towards an omni-directional that does NOT need to be
"aimed"... but wondering if anyone out there using one?
Elliot Richmond
I am using a Winegard "Hideaway." First thing I discovered is that it
is not truly omnidirectional. Such a thing is probably not possible
anyway. I have found that when the signal is bad, I can go out and
twist the thing around a bit this way and that and often capture a
stable signal.
Also, in my opinion, the thing is not very well made. But the main
problem I have is being in the fringe of Austin TV stations. So I am
trying to rig up a PVC mast to get some height. Right now the "arms"
barely clear the trailer roof.
Elliot Richmond
Follow your Dreams!
(Except for the ones where you're naked in Church!)
Lon VanOstran
With our batwing we had 32 channels last week in Tampa, FL.
Lil Abner
In many locations there are many stations but in many different directions.
We have good range but it is aggravating to have to manually rotate the
antennae for one station, in that direction, or the other, only to have
the reception degrade to where it freezes or vanishes
You may spend half the time trying to improve the reception of stations.
All the Dealers I have asked, when I thought of it, didn't have a clue.
nothermark
How many antennas do you see with motorized rotation?
Lil Abner
What about something like the Jensen Omnidirectional?
Hank
I have the omni-directional. I don't get as many stations as the
people I camp with that has the bat-wing type. Theirs may be 2-3 feet
higher, but I doubt that is the reason because sometimes my spot is a
little higher than theirs.
Many factors will affect reception, such as height, trees, hills,
weather, lenth of cable, type if booster, and etc.
If I ever change mine out, I'd go with the bat-wing. If you're worried
you'd forget to put it down, hang your keys on the crank. Worked for
me on my last RV.
Hank <~~~~ helps to solve problems around the world :-)
Dean
I use thV. I am in the Phoenix area and get Tucson stations ok.
How long a reach is the station(s) you want to get? The batwing is
good for 80-100 miles.
nothermark
No idea about the Jensen. My point was you can't scan direction
without an auto rotating antenna.
Lil Abner
antenna though.
It wouldn't take much genius to build such an antenna. I couldn't do it
though. I would buy one.
Robert Bonomi
Powered antenna rotators are easy to come by. cheap ones start at $100 or
so. But _you_ have to twist a knob on the control box to make the antenna
point in any particular direction. They are also relatively slow. To turn a
full circle may take as much as 2 minutes.
A _fully_ automatic unit -- one that would find, _by_itself_, the existence
and direction of all the signals within range would be *VERY* expensive. As
in *thousands* of dollars. To get decent performance -- in terms of the time
it takes to locate/identify all the available signals -- probably several
_TENS_ of thousands, to get results in significantly under an hour. Consider
how long it takes your digital TV to do full scan or available stations with
a -single- antenna configuration. Multiply that by 100 so, and you'll get
the time needed for a 'simple' ($1,000 range) automatic antenna system. A
'five figures' unit could probably get the time down to a few (3-5) minutes.
You're right, it doesn't take much genius -- 'how to' do it is well known.
It _does_ take 'computer control', however, and while the hardware for that
is relatively inexpensive, the *software* development cost _is_ non-trivial.
With the relatively _tiny_ number of units likely to be sold, that makes
for a significant 'per unit' cost.
The other hardware to 'do it right' -- a panoramic receiver/spectrum
analyzer -- is not at all inexpensive either.
Anybody that *really* wants one, and has circa $30k to drop on it,
feel free to contact me. <grin>
Lil Abner
thousand dollar bills. :)