Winegard tv antennas, good/bad ?

[scanzel]

I need to add either the crank up or motorized Winegard antenna to the bus roof before I close in the ceiling. Are they ok and is one better or worse that the other, crank verses motorized. Problems ?

[garhawk]

Hi Scanzel,

Crank up, good.  Power up, better.

[bevans6]

The antenna is good, possibly the best for off-air reception.  Get the little add on thingy, I forget what it is called.  Crank up is what I have, it's cheaper and less prone to the electric motor breaking.  Power up is less prone to giving you tennis elbow from all that tedious cranking...

What you do is crank it up, and set the antenna at right angles to the nearest town, and do a channel search.  Then turn it 90 degrees and do an add-on channel search.  That gives you most if not all of the possible channels, and you can fine tune reception by turning the antenna if the channel pixelates.

Brian

[goutoe]

I have the crank up in my bus, its easy to use have had no problems, except to remember to crank it back down! I hang a ribbon on the crank as a reminder,

John.

[Gerry H]

While on the subject of Winegard antennas, does anyone have/use the omni direction permanent mount on the roof type? About $125. Curious to hear about it's performance and attributes. Thanks Gerry H

[bevans6]

I have read on RV websites that the omni is not as effective as the normal directional type that you crank up and rotate.  But - you don't have to do anything to the omni, just hope it works...

Brian

[FloridaCliff]

While on the subject of Winegard antennas, does anyone have/use the omni direction permanent mount on the roof type? About $125. Curious to hear about it's performance and attributes. Thanks Gerry H

Hey Gerry,

I have had the Omni Directional antenna for about 5 years.  For my use I am pleased with its performance.

I had the bat wing style on my old Class C and its performance may have been a little better, since you can fine tune its directional capabilities.

With the Digital transmission of Off-Air signals, this has become less of an issue.

I will also admit I like the simplicity of not having to crank it up/down or remembering to put it down. 

Cliff

[Utahclaimjumper]

The obvious question in my mind is which system do you mean??" over the air " or "sat.dish". I have the Winegard automatic sat dish including in motion.. I think if having to do it again I would opt for the crank & point sat. antenna.

The Red Rider has one and has it down to about 20 seconds,,I also have the crank up "over the air" with the "wingman" add on, but rarely use it in favor of sat.>>>Dan

[blue_goose]

If you are looking for a over the air get a Jack.  If sat. get a King Dome.  They are both made by King Dome.
Good working and good people to work with.
Jack

[lvmci]

Hi All, in small towns (markets in TV) there is still some standard definition broadcasters, your builtin tuner on your flat screen may not pass thru standard definition and only interpret digital television, the boxes that we got a while back had a pass thru feature just for this reason, if your not in a city there may be TV but your new digital tv may not see it, from an outdoor antenna, the two signals are not compatable. Cable companies still send both signals down the coax. Lvmci...

[bevans6]

Lvmci, my tv receives both analog and digital over-air signals just fine, they are completely compatible with the antenna and the cabling/amplifier.  No issues what so ever.  All I do is select 'all channel search" and it finds all the channels in the area, analog or digital.  You're right, though - the TV needs to be able to tune both types of signals.

Brian

[TomC]

My Winegard batwing TV antenna is the manual crank up type.  I don't have the additional add on thingy and the antenna picks up the digital channels really well.  I have used the omni directional non aiming type antennas, and can say without a shadow of a doubt that the batwing works much better.  Just use the crank up one.  Good Luck, TomC

[Dave Siegel]

We have the "Crank Up" style in our bus with the added High Definition nose piece and amplifier. The HD add-on makes all the difference in the world. I tried for several years to get a portable satellite Direct TV dish to work and unless there was a electronic ace there I could never get the dish to work for me.

The crank up has solved the problems, as a matter of fact the over the air high definition signal is better than anything that you get by satellite.

I bought a little florescent red stop sign that I hang over the front of my windshield when the antenna is up, when I get ready to drive off the red flag reminds me to put the antenna down. The flag is on a spring clip so I just move it to the side when I drive away.

Like someone else said the power up is just something else to break. The crank up goes from flat to fully up in about 4 revolutions.

Hope this helps.

Dave Siegel