Antenna's

[Janb313]

Had decided just to leave the old Delta on my Scamp as I've been told it should work just as well as a new one - but since the tangle with the phone line popped it off I'm back to thinking about it again! The antenna itself landed on the grass and looks fine (tho a little old and tired) but the plastic inside the trailer broke. Not sure if I can get it back together and I understand they don't make them any more. Scamp now uses the Winetenna Boomerang Amplified antenna and I also looked at the Winegard Roadstar 1500. Not sure which would be better or easier to install in the old spot without to much wrangling. Any thoughts on brands or on the confusion of digital versus analog antennas - if there really is any?

[Eddie Longest]

I have an old delta I pulled off I think I can find the knobs if you want them. The delta seals can go bad and water leaks down the center of the shaft and you can't get parts any longer. I replaced my delta with a roadstar 1500.

[Brian M. in NY]

Has anyone had any luck with any of the paper thin digital antennas like the Mohu? It kind of looks like a white mud flap that you hang in the window.

[mary and bob]

I have two different Winegard antennas. Last year I bought a Winegard Hideaway antenna, it is in a tube, telescopes up and 4 metal loops fold out. It is made to attach to the side or rear wall of a camper. I didn't want to make holes in the trailer shell, and with Uhaul having an inner shell to further complicate things, I made an apparatus to mount it on the bumper. It works good, and reception of course is related to your location. Recently we were at a Camping World store and I bought a Winegard Rayzor, which is a flat thin antenna that attaches with suction cups. So at a campground in SC I decided to do a comparison test. The Hideaway would pull in 13 channels by running a channel scan on the TV, the Rayzor pulled in only 10 channels, but the extra 3 that the Hideaway got were not watchable. The Rayzor I had stuck on to the outside of the camper, but when I went back out it had fallen off and was laying on the ground. Reason for falling off,?? maybe because I had waxed the trailer, I don't know, but reception laying on the ground was real good. The Rayzor comes with only two suction cups, probably should have four. So for the results of the test, I think the Rayzor had as good or better reception as the Hideaway, and there is no installation issues. On the other hand if I had stuck it on the inside of a window I would have had a coil of wire to deal with inside the camper. I have a short coil of antenna wire inside the hatch where the electric cord is on the side of the trailer, and connect that to the Hideaway antenna, or to a campground cable TV connector if they have cable available.

[Steve Hammel]

Originally Posted by Brian M. in NY

Has anyone had any luck with any of the paper thin digital antennas like the Mohu? It kind of looks like a white mud flap that you hang in the window.

Other than the little bit of height you gain from being on the roof it should work fine. Fiberglass doesn't impede the signal so it doesn't need to be outside.

[rgrugg]

Our Kodiak has one of those non-adjustable antennas with booster. It's worthless. A couple of winters ago our friends who were several miles farther from the tv stations picked a lot more with their old crank up model than we did. Don't know if they're all as bad as ours.

[Brian M. in NY]

I figured it had to be too good to be true! Unless you're camped next to a TV station, of course.

[Brian B-P]

Antennas are not digital. The big difference for antenna systems between the old analog TV era and the new digital TV world is that more stations are now likely to be in the UHF frequency band, so antennas should be designed for both VHF and UHF; traditionally, RV antennas were often effective only for VHF. In addition, there are a lot more systems which incorporate an amplifier with the antenna, and some of them even have a signal strength meter. The point of having a tool to show signal strength is that in the old analog system you could just watch how snowy the picture was, and now in digital it is not so easy to see when you have pointed the antenna for best signal.

[Janb313]

Thanks Eddie but I'm thinking a new antenna is going to be the best idea - for exactly the reasons you replaced yours! And since it's already off....

[Brian M. in NY]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

Antennas are not digital. The big difference for antenna systems between the old analog TV era and the new digital TV world is that more stations are now likely to be in the UHF frequency band, so antennas should be designed for both VHF and UHF; traditionally, RV antennas were often effective only for VHF.

Brian,
I stand corrected, and rightfully so. Having spent half my working life in the CATV industry in an area which has had cable since 1953 owing to the surrounding hills and lack of broadcast TV stations for 60 miles in any direction, I recognize the difference. I was trying to couch my description in terms that most people could relate to. Do a search for "digital tv antenna" on Amazon and see what you come up with. That said, Amazon generally doesn't give antenna gain specs and I was look for an experiential evaluation. I realize that a dipole with reflectors is going to have much greater gain but there is a big trade off in physical size. I am also aware that signals in the UHF band are essentially "line of sight" and therefore topography is going to play a bigger role than antenna gain. Although physical size of an antenna is significantly smaller in UHF range than in the VHF range, the standard measurement for digital UHF reception is taken at an antenna elevation of 30 ft above ground. I'm not about to rig a 30 foot mast on a 15 foot egg to watch TV. I think I'll just stick with my DVD player or read a book Thanks for clarifying the issues.

[David Tilston]

At $420 this is a bit expensive, but I have thought of using something like this to mount a YAGI antenna on my truck, to increase the range of my cell phone. That was back in the day when I worked in the oil patch. I actually used these, when I worked as a lineman, to replace fuses on the 14.4 kV distribution lines.
Fiberglass TeleScoping Poles

[Carol H]

The MOHU Leaf (indoor) gets great reviews from the vintage trailer crowd been thinking of giving it a try. I noticed that there is also a thin Winegard Rayzar Amplified Portable Indoor HD Antenna as well, dont know anyone who has

[mary and bob]

Carol H: I gave a review of the Rayzor back on post # 4

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by mary and bob

Carol H: I gave a review of the Rayzor back on post # 4

Thanks Bob - sounds like its something to look at a bit more seriously.

[Glenn Baglo]

I keep pondering. It seems that if I am close enough to an urban centre to pick up a signal, I am probably at a full service campground with cable. And if I'm in the boondocks, I'm not going to get any signal.
I have a 15" LCD TV and a 7" DVD player that I can connect to the TV. Been dragging them around for two years and maybe watched two movies.

[Night Sailor]

Originally Posted by Carol H

The MOHU Leaf (indoor) gets great reviews from the vintage trailer crowd been thinking of giving it a try. I noticed that there is also a thin Winegard Rayzar Amplified Portable Indoor HD Antenna as well, dont know anyone who has

I have been thinking of using one of these telescopic masts, i have one ready to use, but not for a TV, for ham radio. You can also get mounts that you drive on top of to stabilize it. I plan to build some custom mounts for it. The higher you can place your antenna, the better, if there are obstructions nearby like trees, tall buildings, etc. even without obstructions, height will improve range and performance.

Regarding "modern" TV antennas, the bigger the better for improving signal gain.

As others have mentioned, antenna amplifiers, which are typically low noise GASFET type devices work really well. Both in combination will out perform smaller boomer and or circular TV antennas which are pretty much useless. Some sort of manual or powered rotator helps point the antenna where the signal is strongest.


A few years ago I read about low profile phased array satellite TV antennas and receivers. I was unable to find out much on these. They were available, now it seems they are not.

[Night Sailor]

This is what I use for entertainment while traveling--boating, camping, and air travel.

I ripped many DVDs to MP4 files. i store these on my desktop computer and download these to my laptop, iPhone and iPad. A movie will fit in about a gigabyte of space.

My last trip delivering a yacht to Halifax, I watched a few movies on my iPad. I used it while on watch late at night when motoring up Long Island Sound and in my bunk to pass the time crossing the Gulf of Maine--plus I used it to navigate. It is just like a DVD with pause controls and the picture was great. Switch back and forth between movie watching and navigating was easy.

To rip movie into this format, I used a Mac computer running Snow Leopard and an application called Handbrake. Later version of MacOS deliberately break the functionality of Handbrake.

Another idea I have not yet tried was to copy movies onto a TiVo and then move the TiVo into my boat or camper. There are now 4TB hard drives that can be retro fitted into an HD TiVo. Mine is 2 TB's. Still that would hold many seasons of TV shows, mini series, and lots of movies. My idea was to copy a week or two of Turner Classic Movies for a nice selection, and rely on another source for news and weather.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Night Sailor

A few years ago I read about low profile phased array satellite TV antennas and receivers. I was unable to find out much on these. They were available, now it seems they are not.

Although KVH does not seem to market it for marine use, the TracVision A7 phased-array antenna system appears to be currently offered for in-motion vehicular use. I assume that it would have insufficient sensitivity at low look angles, which is likely the reason why it is not offered for Canadian service. It is available for only DirecTV, and also does not support HDTV. Too bad - I have a widebody motorhome which might have enough roof real estate for an effective system, which would be preferable to my current motorized doesn't-work-in-motion dish.

KVH is the only supplier to end consumers of this type of system to my (limited) knowledge.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Night Sailor

This is what I use for entertainment while traveling--boating, camping, and air travel. I ripped many DVDs to MP4 files. i store these on my desktop computer and download these to my laptop, iPhone and iPad. A movie will fit in about a gigabyte of space. .

Found watching movies on the laptop or ipad works great if your own your own. Not so great if more than one party wants to watch - as the devise often needs to be turned to angles that dont work out well for one of the other for clear viewing while maintaining a comfortable sitting position for all parties watching. If you have more than two wanting to watch the problem gets even more interesting. Almost lost a brand new laptop once when a child decided they needed to jump up to get something, sending the laptop flying to the other end of the trailer. The nice part of having a tv and dvd player mounted up & out of the way where all can see, is that if anyone decides to to jump up while its playing they are not likely to damage anything or that no one watching is impacted due to the devise having to be moved so one party can move away which seemed to always happen right at the high point of the movie