Poor or No TV Antennae Reception

[MtnGuy]

For other members that are having problems with their TV antennae reception, I thought my dilemma might be a possible solution for others:

Since our Surveyor did not come with a TV, we finally got a small TV/DVD combo. In checking it out, the automatic channel scan came up with no channels available…nada, zip. I pulled both of the TV wall plates to check connections and made sure the booster was on…..still nothing. Knowing that our analog tube TV with converter box previously would pull in 19 channels sitting in the driveway, I hooked that up……that combo picked up 3 channels, but they were weak. I noticed that my body position affected the picture……if I was about 3 feet from the TV then the picture was solid, but any closer or further away then the picture would be unstable or freeze up. Hmmm….. the antennae was directly above me, so up on the roof I went and checked the connections. The interior copper wire in the coaxial fitting that connects with the coupler that goes through the roof was completely gone !!! There was a small amount of black residue on the coupler, which I presume was what was left of the wire. So, I ran a jumper from the antennae to the coupler, and got a little better picture on my analog TV, but still nothing on my new digital. I ran an antennae power scan on my TV, and that came up 0%. I then ran a jumper from the antennae directly to the TV, and got 18 strong channels and 32% on the antennae power scan. I plugged the jumper directly to the booster plate, hit the booster button and got 23 channels with a 38% antennae power scan. This indicated that I still had a problem with the wiring to the roof coupler. I then pulled the microwave out to get to the coupler, removed the coaxial wire connected to the coupler from the inside and found the same condition as the outside wire…..the copper core wire had disintegrated. I cut off a small section of wire, installed a new end, fed the coupler back through the roof, and all is well…..but I still need to replace the temporary jumper wire at the antennae.

The nut to roof coupler showed a little rust, but I don’t think there had been much water getting into the pile of goop the factory put around that…plus, nothing had leaked into the inside. I am blaming the copper core wire corrosion on the galvanic exchange process. Whatever the coupler is made of has a lower anodic index number than copper. If this is happening on my 2 year old camper, it has got to be happening to others out there, so I thought I would post this thread for others having similar issues.

[rockwood06]

Originally Posted by mtnguy

For other members that are having problems with their TV antennae reception, I thought my dilemma might be a possible solution for others:

Since our Surveyor did not come with a TV, we finally got a small TV/DVD combo. In checking it out, the automatic channel scan came up with no channels available…nada, zip. I pulled both of the TV wall plates to check connections and made sure the booster was on…..still nothing. Knowing that our analog tube TV with converter box previously would pull in 19 channels sitting in the driveway, I hooked that up……that combo picked up 3 channels, but they were weak. I noticed that my body position affected the picture……if I was about 3 feet from the TV then the picture was solid, but any closer or further away then the picture would be unstable or freeze up. Hmmm….. the antennae was directly above me, so up on the roof I went and checked the connections. The interior copper wire in the coaxial fitting that connects with the coupler that goes through the roof was completely gone !!! There was a small amount of black residue on the coupler, which I presume was what was left of the wire. So, I ran a jumper from the antennae to the coupler, and got a little better picture on my analog TV, but still nothing on my new digital. I ran an antennae power scan on my TV, and that came up 0%. I then ran a jumper from the antennae directly to the TV, and got 18 strong channels and 32% on the antennae power scan. I plugged the jumper directly to the booster plate, hit the booster button and got 23 channels with a 38% antennae power scan. This indicated that I still had a problem with the wiring to the roof coupler. I then pulled the microwave out to get to the coupler, removed the coaxial wire connected to the coupler from the inside and found the same condition as the outside wire…..the copper core wire had disintegrated. I cut off a small section of wire, installed a new end, fed the coupler back through the roof, and all is well…..but I still need to replace the temporary jumper wire at the antennae.

The nut to roof coupler showed a little rust, but I don’t think there had been much water getting into the pile of goop the factory put around that…plus, nothing had leaked into the inside. I am blaming the copper core wire corrosion on the galvanic exchange process. Whatever the couple is made of has a lower anodic index number than copper. If this is happening on my 2 year old camper, it has got to be happening to others out there, so I thought I would post this thread for others having similar issues.

Thanks for the info, that was some great work. No problems with mine yet with a 5 year old camper but I will keep an eye out and I am sure this will help others.

[NWJeeper]

Great work Chap. I 86'd my TV antenna and replaced with satellite. Never had much luck with the old TV antennas anyway. Glad you got yours working!