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Last Changed 3/24/2009
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Some RV parks offer cable TV for a fee or as a benefit.
RV park cable TV is not always what you receive in a city. Sometimes RV park cable TV is more like a community antenna system,
giving you the broadcast channels in the area.
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To simplify wiring, the typical installation for an RV has a traditional batwing antenna that is amplified.
This is the most common antenna, the Winegard Sensor, more commonly called the "batwing" antenna. It does a decent job
when we are near a major city.
As the Digital Television change-over is here, there was a question of whether the "batwing" antenna is okay for Digital TV (DS).
The answer is yes it is okay.
However, most of the DS channels are going to be in the UHF band compared to the old Analog TV channels that were in the VHF band.
By nature, the VHF band has more range than UHF. The reason for moving the DS channels out of the VHF band was to free the spectrum
space for First Responder (Police, Fire, FBI, Homeland Security, etc.) communications. While many are not really excited about
losing some range in television, we think that a step back will show that the First Responder need does
trump television.
Winegard, the maker of the most prevalent "batwing" antenna has released a signal amplifier to boost the UHF performance of their
Sensor antenna called the Wingman. It is easy to install on the Sensor antenna and it does work.
We didn't buy one but we had a chance to check one out from a
Winegard Rep. If we used our antenna more, we would probably
buy one. |
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The front of the antenna plate has a coax jack that attaches the antenna coax from the TV. There is a power plug jack (cigarette
lighter like) that can be used to power a DC TV.
There is also a power button to turn the antenna amplifier on and off. There is a LED lamp to indicate that the power is on. |
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The amplifier is built into the antenna and the power supply for it
is mounted on the back of the antenna plate.
There are three coax connections on the back of the antenna plate.
One is from the batwing antenna. The second is from the cable input
plate (see below). The third coax connection goes to the TV
distribution network (all the other TV jacks). |
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Usually there is a single or double plate similar to this on the
outside of the RV. It could be located inside a utility
compartment.
One coax connection is for park cable connection. This is for RV
parks that offer cable TV.
That input is cabled to the cable input on the antenna plate. |
If the power is on for the antenna plate, then the antenna amplifier
is energized and the antenna signal is put out on the front coax
plug and to the TV distribution network, If the power is off, the
signal from the cable jack it put out on the front coax plus and the
distribution network. |
Digital TV
If you rely on the bat-wing antenna, you should consider getting a
digital TV (DT) now. Note - digital TV does not mean HDTV (High
Definition TV). HDTV uses DT for reception but has a higher
resolution display. DT means the method that the signal is
received. The reason for a DT now is less snow. There is no snowy
middle ground with DT. With DT, if you either get an extremely
clear picture, or no picture at all.
Because of the digital encoding, DT can receive usable signals
father than the old analog method. Many TV stations have already
converted to DT transmission in preparation for the February 2009
end of analog transmission.
When we bought a TV for Tige, we wanted to
stay in the 27" size TV because we did not want to change the TV
cabinetry. We bought a Samsung tube HDTV. At the time, we did not
think about the digital tuner function because we were going to use
satellite TV. But we had the occasion where we could not get
satellite reception and had to crank up the bat-wing antenna. We
ran the cable scan and were surprised when we found more channels
than we expected. For example, we found a snowy channel 6( old
analog), a clear channel 6-DT, and a weather channel on channel
6-DT1.
We were in Fort Wilderness at Disney World which has a lot of
trees. We were able to find a hole for the Internet satellite dish
but no luck with the TV dish. Fort Wilderness has cable TV to about
half the site but ours was not one of them. We cranked up the
bat-wing and the Samsung was receiving clear channels. The bedroom
TV is a smaller older unit and not digital. All the channels it
found on the channel scan were snowy.
We would like to replace the bedroom TV with a digital model. It is
not digital and it is getting old. We had the TV for several
years before we got Tige.
When the analog cut-off comes in July 2009, you will need a
digital converter box (ala the UHF boxes of the '50s) to receive TV
with an antenna. Cable and satellite TV connected TVs should be
okay until those providers find it is cheaper to deliver the signals
in digital format from their boxes to the TV. |
Cable
You should carry a 25' piece of coax cable for RV park cable. That is usually enough. We also carry a 50' piece just in case the cable
outlet is farther away. Usually the park cable jack is mounted on the electrical power post.
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