Once all tv signals went digital, signal distance was shorter than analog signal.
Digital signal doesn't have the range of analog signal.
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Dan-Retired California Firefighter/EMT
Shawn-Musician/Entrepreneur/Wine Expert
and Zoe the Wonder Dog(R.I.P.)
2016 PrimeTime TracerAIR 255, pushing a 2014 Ford F150 SCREW XTR 4x4 3.5 Ecoboost w/Max Tow Package
4pt Equal-i-zer WDH and 1828lbs of payload capacity
fella 10 - What do you do with the antenna itself when you are travelling?
our tt is a Micro Lite 25KS, ... the antenna easily fits into the outside storage area of the kitchen slideout, ... the pole being a little over 8' was another matter, ... finally decided to carry it inside, clipped onto the top of the fascia board of the slideout, ... fits there just fine, ...
Take a look at this. Easy to install in place of your standard booster. Really helps us pin point good signals. Walmart has other good options. Google ‘RV tv antennas ‘
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2014 MiniLite with
Nissan Frontier
As the one poster said, raise your antenna as much as practical. TV signals are what is known as "line of sight" signals. So you have to be reasonably in line of sight of the station's antenna. Couple that with a really good antenna and an amplifier and you can pull in signals from pretty far away (but not over the horizon). Also, digital TV signals suffer from what is known as the "Cliff Effect" in that you may find a strong signal in one place and just a ways from it, because of a dense building, or hill, etc. there will be no signal (it fell off the cliff) at all. With digital there isn't much breakup - it's either there or not. If the signal isn't very strong, sometimes even an airplane or another RV can stop the signal from reaching your antenna. Unlike AM radio signals which can bounce off the ionosphere at night, TV signals have to be in a straight line - like the line from the satellite to your dish for Direct TV. When we camp, though, since we aren't full time, the antenna on the TT works pretty well for us to pick up local news. The rest I can get at home after camping and enjoying the great outdoors.
I had good reception with the crank up bat wing and booster except at some of the campgrounds in the UP of Michigan on Lake Superior. The campground is near lake elevation and the tower is not that far away. But the signal, like ProfChuck wrote, goes right over our heads. On some days we can get a station from Canada across the lake. If I wanted ota tv I could, like others write, put a antenna on a 20 foot pole. But I do not watch alphabet networks anyway so why bother. We have Direct TV at home so I take a carry out dish and one of the receivers. Hundreds of channels to choose from but usually only watch Weathernation, One America News, or listen to music channels.
We have the Family Share plan as well, 20 Gigs. Androids here.
I've only recently subscribed to DirecTV Now, and only have used it briefly to make sure I understand how and how well it works. We have DirecTV at home (dish fed) so I don't need it there yet, but we plan to cut the cord as we begin to travel more full time and so I'm looking for alternatives.
One has to use the specific Direct TV or DTV Now app to get the free data. Apparently if you have DTV at home you can view it on the phone or pad with no data charge.
Reading the fine print shows data free for actual viewing. If you’re looking at the guide, or searching for a movie/program/etc then you’re using regular data. But, that is probably a minuscule amount. I always wondered why my bill would show a few hundred mb of free data and then 7-800 kB of regular data followed by a bunch of free data. Must be looking at the program guide then switching channels.
One has to use the specific Direct TV or DTV Now app to get the free data. Apparently if you have DTV at home you can view it on the phone or pad with no data charge.
Reading the fine print shows data free for actual viewing. If you’re looking at the guide, or searching for a movie/program/etc then you’re using regular data. But, that is probably a minuscule amount. I always wondered why my bill would show a few hundred mb of free data and then 7-800 kB of regular data followed by a bunch of free data. Must be looking at the program guide then switching channels.
Interestingly, just today, I started to get a pop-up when logging into DirecTV on our mobile devices starting that streaming is data free. Never had that before.
I suspect using them as a hotspot to feed the Roku's DirecTV app will still eat up the data though.
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If I go home to watch it I can’t because of all those pesky little interruptions like having to cut the grass and do all those other chores.
If you go with a Directv or did SATV system, your second receiver should be a model that has no TiVo recorder. Low power usage which is great for boondocking. My Directv receiver with a 19 in TV draws only 2.1 amps total. My Furrion TV has a DVD player as well. With an old 18 in manual dish in my 1993 Class A it works well in remote Landsailing sites. Our other Class C RV has an automatic King antenna using the same receiver to a 32 in 12 VDC led tv. An electrical engineering degree helps me with that setup or just patience!!! Mark in Nevada
If you have the crank-up batwing antenna...replace it with the $50 King/Jack batwing replacement head.
I went from getting around 25 channels in the side yard of my house (just sold the house in February) in the north Denver metro area with the batwing to over 80 channels in the same spot with the King/Jack!
And it takes less than two minutes to install!
I also bought a little TV signal locator device at Camping World to help aim the antenna.
When I traded in my TT for my current 5'ver...I pulled the King/Jack off of it and put the batwing back on and now enjoy the King/Jack on my 5'ver!
If I could figure out how to remove the useless OEM disk type antenna I would replace it with one of the folding/rotating ones. Sitting at my house and receiving two channels. The 10 year old trailer we have which is equipped with the old fashioned flip and rotate antenna picks up 16 channels in the same location.
Better TV signal ?............go home and watch it. Enjoy the outdoors
Finally!!! Someone with the best advice ever! I was thinking as I was reading the first several posts, "since when do people go camping to watch TV?" That's the last thing I want to do! I go to enjoy the outdoors, to hike, to meet new people, to see the sights and all that!
Well, heck, I watch very little TV even at home, so what do I know?
I use an amazon firestick and use the hotspot on my cell phone for wifi. It works great but I have been seasonal camping and have good cell service there. You can get access to pretty much everything on the firestick at pretty much zero monthly cost. Tree cover eliminates direct tv reception as soon as the trees get their leaves. Hardly watch any tv but it's good for a rainy evening.
Been a member since buying a 2017 Forest River Grey Wolf 23MK Last year.We frequently go to a campground in the Northeast which has no cable.
We usually can pick up a few public service channels and a few more local ones with our hotspot in our Chevy Silverado. Hard to do as you have to keep the key on all the time for it to work and our plan had only 10 gigs of data.
How much do we have to spend to get more channels?
PS. The campground has a lot of trees and is far away form any large city.
Thanks for the great site!
Sounds like you are in an area with no reception..... Nothing will fix that except a pay as you go dish system, and then you will need a good line of site to the satellite...... Which in this case may not work either...... When you go to area like this, take a lot of DVD movies...... If you have phone service you can stream of you have a way.
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