Antenna opinions

[Matt in SV]

Has anyone had any experience with RV antenna types? I started out looking at one of the Winegard Sensar directional antennas, but it would have been a hassle to mount it on the curved roofline of my egg:

First two are less than $50:

Winegard 720 Dipole - Bidirectional


Comments - this one could mount centered just above the rear window and you slide it up about 20" then can rotate it to point at the receiver.

Winegard Hideaway HA-0130 Antenna - "Omnidirectional"

Comments - this one pops out of a plastic housing and unfolds like an umbrella. It's not as directional, but that may make it less sensitive.

The next two are omnidirectional RV antennas that mount on top. Both require 12V power: They are $65 to $130 depending on whether you need the antenna cable and where you buy them. They mount up top on their own tripod feet, or could be mounted on a mast connected to the bumper and trailer "corner area" (If we had corners )

Winegard RoadStar RS-2000 Omni-directional


Winegard RoadStar RS-1500 Amplified


Lastly here's that rotating Sensar 4 that I had to give up on. It's pretty cool in that it cranks up from a flat orientation and can rotate close to 360 degrees using an interior knob. On the downside, it does take up a lot of roof space. The scale is deceiving it would be about twice this big in comparison to the others, something like 4.5 feet tall and wide.

Sensar IV RVW-395 TV Antenna

[JOE DRISSEL]

I just bought a 13" 12 volt flat screen. I made one of these How to Make a TV Antenna for HDTV | TV Antenna Plans and so far it works great. I did not put the reflectors on it.

[Frederick L. Simson]

Originally Posted by Matt in SV

Has anyone had any experience with RV antenna types? I started out looking at one of the Winegard Sensar directional antennas, but it would have been a hassle to mount it on the curved roofline of my egg:
Winegard Hideaway HA-0130 Antenna - "Omnidirectional"

Comments - this one pops out of a plastic housing and unfolds like an umbrella. It's not as directional, but that may make it less sensitive.

I have the Hideaway HA-130 on my Fiber Stream. I made an adapter by bending an aluminum bar to mount the antenna at the curve on the street side of the trailer. The bar is attached at the top to the flange of the Fantastic-Fan, and to two of the divider-wall screws at the side.



I kept my older TV/VCR combo and use a Walmart.com: RCA Digital TV Converter Box, DTA800: DVD & Blu-ray Players


The antenna is actually very directional! The Digital converter box has a signal strength meter (displays on the TV screen and has an audio tone) that I use to tune the antenna's direction to get the best response for the weakest station within range. Kind of a fussy procedure to

1. turn the antenna while listening to the tone from the converter's signal strength meter
2. then re-tune the channels on the converter to check if a different station becomes weaker
3. then revisit the signal strength meter and turn the antenna again
4. repeat until there is no more improvement

until I get the best response of the weakest station, but once that's done the reception is excellent for any station within a 20 mile radius.

[Raz]

Originally Posted by JOE DRISSEL

I just bought a 13" 12 volt flat screen. I made one of these How to Make a TV Antenna for HDTV | TV Antenna Plans and so far it works great. I did not put the reflectors on it.

When this thread first showed up I added the link Joe provided to my project list. I finally got to building one last week. I made the frame out of scrape pine. The elements are made from about 10' of left over house wire (12/2 w gnd); the reflectors, some cardboard, and some aluminum foil.

The antenna works well for UHF stations which turns out is quite a few. Back when the switch to HD occurred many VHF stations moved their transmitter frequency to the UHF band while retaining their familiar channel number.

This makes a nice "couple of hours" project and you can't beat the price. Thanks to Joe for the post. Raz

[cpaharley2008]

Anyone interested I have a Winegard Hide-Away for sale, mounted on 2 4' sections pvc pipe for a 8' height for use- $35- plus shipping or local pick up.

[Ron in BC]

Lots of options, that's for sure. Glad to see I'm not the only one making home made digital antennas. Actually a friend made a simple "shoe box" antenna and we were amazed that high quality HD signals were available over the air for free.

Not that guys are competitive or anything but then 3 of us ended up having a little competition to see who could make the best antenna and get the most stations. We built 3 different designs. I went with the bow tie design, the others a little more complicated. They all do well.

I've used the bow tie one on my boat at various locations, sometimes in locations that you wouldn't expect it to work and at fairly long distances.

I think that some people go for an amplified antenna thinking that it'll pull in stations better but we havn't seen the need to have an amplifer

In the short term I'll be putting the bow tie antenna on a modular aluminum pole mounted to the rear bike rack receiver. I expect that I'll just tidy up the design a little and keep on using it.

At home I actually bought an 8 bay OTA antenna. For $60 bucks I probably couldn't have bought the aluminum pieces. It's beyond fantastic. It feeds two TVs with a stunningly good HD quality. The quality is better than my cable feed. I toggle between the two feeds and people are amazed that such a high quality signal is available over the air for free.

Ron

[floyd]

We have the Delta which was provided by Scamp, It does as well as any we have tried or heard of from others.

[Joy A]

Originally Posted by Matt in SV

Has anyone had any experience with RV antenna types?

Winegard 720 Dipole - Bidirectional


Comments - this one could mount centered just above the rear window and you slide it up about 20" then can rotate it to point at the receiver.

Matt, this is the antenna I used until I purchased my VuQube satellite dish. I attached a square aluminum piece to the bumper that was the same size as the antenna. Then I used an aluminum pipe between the two as a mast. They were held together with thumb screws. I drilled holes at different heights. It worked fine. I stored the pole and antenna behind the bi-fold screen door in my Scamp.

[sfoss]

Maybe Ed will chime in about this. He is a tv guy.

[GeorgeR]

Winegard RoadStar RS-2000 Omni-directional


I bought this one and tested against Bigfoot's built in amplified antenna which is just OK. Bigfoot won and Winegard was send back.

George.

[LK Gray]

I just recently installed a leaf antenna. gomohu.com.
It was an improvement over my rabbit ears, and doesn't take up any space or require any holes to be drilled.
I posted my test results on the other casita site.
LKG907

[Carol H]

That leaf antenna looks good - where did you mount it in the trailer. I tried your link but it didnt come up with your test results. Care to share them here?

[LK Gray]

Test results can be found at Casitaforum.com under the accessories section.
The unit is 9X11" and I currently have it stuck in the aft cabinet 17'SD. I'm thinking about permenently mounting it on the inside of a cabinet door. It's about 1/4" thick.