Antenna for Television

Wendy · Member

Antenna for Television

DeBe · Guru

Hi Wendy. Any type of antenna on a caravan which is compact is going to be a compromise, in what it will pick up in signsl strength, in comparison to a house tv antenna. You do not need a special antenna for digital TV. What I use is one of those plastic T shaped antennas with a signal booster, this works ok on digital & analogue in my van. Its all relavent as to how far you are from the transmitter. Personaly I wouldnt spend too much as with caravan antennas spending alot dosnt doesnt necesarily mean you will get results. That said the Wingard is probably ok if its not too expensive, I supose on e good point is you can adjust it inside. Cheers Daryl

justcruisin01 · Guru

Its all relevent to the signal strength.

Good signal ,anything works,

No signal , nothing works .

Also interfearance ,trees ,buildings etc ,

You may not have a picture ,& next door is ok.

Lots of pros,& con's,

seen dishes that dont work in places ,

Unless you are a tv die hard ,dont go over board .

Hylda&Jon · Guru

Hi Wendy! We use a Wingard type with the in van winder control.I have found there as good as any other good quality one & the interior winder & raising control is convenient, but if you are a diehard TV addict I would suggest looking into one of the satellite dishes to pick up the commercial stations as I think there much more reiable.
I suggest you drop into a couple of caravan parks in your area & ask some nomads that have dishes & normal aerials mounted o their vans & see what the consensus is, I find most nomads jump at the chance to give advice.
Good luck.
Jon

Gary and Kerry · Guru

We use the Wingard antenna, our tv has a inbuilt HD tuner and it works a treat where ever there is reception.

PeterInSa · Guru

I like our Wingard/Amp, because it does not take up space in the van, when we finish watching TV I wind the aerial down so do not drive off with it up.

Have a Sat system as well, but takes more time to set up.

Peter

jimricho · Guru

Gary and Kerry wrote:

We use the Wingard antenna, our tv has a inbuilt HD tuner and it works a treat where ever there is reception.

Not familiar with this particular antenna.....does the antenna itself need to be rotated around to a vertical position for locations where the TV signal is vertical (not uncommon in regional areas) rather than the more common horizontal signal, or is this taken care of in the design of the antenna?

milo · Senior Member

ours has a windup n down thingy, dont know what brand it is though, but the reception is a bit tricky in some places, but like i posted in my thread, sometimes this comes apart with out trying too hard , there may be a better solutrion... if it were my van i would go satellite as well..

Gary and Kerry · Guru

jimricho wrote:

Gary and Kerry wrote:

We use the Wingard antenna, our tv has a inbuilt HD tuner and it works a treat where ever there is reception.

Not familiar with this particular antenna.....does the antenna itself need to be rotated around to a vertical position for locations where the TV signal is vertical (not uncommon in regional areas) rather than the more common horizontal signal, or is this taken care of in the design of the antenna?

Jim, not sure on the technical side of things. I know it has an amplifier built into the antenna, just wind it up and when in a new area I do a channel scan on the TV.
We had reception in some areas where others didn't.
It works for us.

PeterD · Guru

jimricho wrote:
Not familiar with this particular antenna.....does the antenna itself need to be rotated around to a vertical position for locations where the TV signal is vertical (not uncommon in regional areas) rather than the more common horizontal signal, or is this taken care of in the design of the antenna?

There is provision to rotate the antenna from inside your van. Rotating the antenna will often improve the signal (same as any other directional antenna.)

Mike47 · Senior Member

I bought a TV antenna from Jaycar for about $75 which is circular in shape (like a flying saucer). The big advantage is that, unlike the "T" shaped antennae, it doesn't have to be rotated to pick up the strongest signal.

I attached it to an aluminium paint roller handle which extends to 3.5m and it works great.

Rolly · Guru

Mike47,
Sorry to be the purveyor of sad news, but the omnidirectional antennae are an absolute pita in built up areas: They pick up all the reflected signals, giving the image an assortment of ghosts.

They are fine out bush, but generally not as sensitive as a good directional array.

Off shore they are quite effective too. They compensate well for the swinging of the vessel and for course changes.

jimricho · Guru

I'm using an "Explorer" antenna (http://www.explorer-rv.com.au/) which is a directional antenna and can be mounted for either horizontal or vertical polarised signals. (Vertical polarisation is quite common in regional areas.)

It has good performance on UHF, satisfactory performance on high-band VHF (channel 6 and above), but poor performance on low band VHF (e.g. channel 2). Explorer do make a model better performance on VHF, including low band. The units come complete with booster amplifier, power supply, power injector and wall "feed-through" and a book listing all the TV Channels. They also can supply an extension mast and mounting hardware.

pictures below show the antenna mounted for both horizontal and vertical polarised signals