Digital Television in 1990 Scamp 16
 

No bashing please.
I do like to watch a little tv while camping, especially if raining. I know there are connections and an antenna on the roof of my new to me 1990 Scamp. Does anyone know if it will pull a digital signal? Not looking for wifi, just digital. It didn't come with a television, so wanting to buy the right thing.

I totally understand :D. The vast majority of HD station frequency assignments that the FCC has made in the US have been UHF so just make sure you have a UHF antenna. HD antenna designs aren't any different than non-HD antenna designs. If you also want to be able receive the few HD stations that were assigned VHF frequencies, get a UHF/VHF antenna.

Antennas don't know if they are receiving digital or analog signals. They just collect the electo-magnetic energy and send it to the receiver. The receiver then figures out what to do with the signal. So the antenna will pick up digital TV.

But antennas are designed to receive some frequencies better than others, and in some directions better than others. Generally TV is either VHF (Very High Frequencies) or UHF (Ultra high frequencies). Those are just old style names for a range of frequencies.

And if the antenna has an amplifier, it will work best at design frequencies. But it does not matter if its a digital or analog signal.

Digital TV is mostly in the UHF range of frequencies so an antenna designed for UHF (TV) works best but there are some in VHF also. Chances are your old antenna is designed for VHF primarily but it will still work to some extent in the UHF range.

So the bottom line is just try the digital TV and see how well it works. If you don't get enough stations to keep you happy you can investigate an antenna that will pick up more signal strength and work well in both bands (such as the King Jack).

To see what TV stations you might pick up where you are camping, go to TV Fool and see what you might find.



--Dan Meyer

Emphasis on the word "might." I agree with checking tvfool... I use that and also an app on my phone to locate nearby TV transmitters, but there is so much variation in conditions that those tools are of limited assistance.

Heck, one time, based on the app, I knew I should be able to get a particular station, but I could not with my BowTie antenna on a ten foot mast. Then I put the antenna on the picnic table faced in the same direction and got the station! That was because the leaves in the trees were blocking the signal but closer to ground level there was less obstruction. So there is that variation and its trail and error a lot, but the apps do get you started in (literally) the right direction.