HD TV Antena

[Black Knight]

Has any one tried this TV product? Trying to get some TV while camping at sites that do not have cable. Thanks for your help in advance.

[cmulvey]

Specifically which product?

[Black Knight]

It is an amplifier HD antenna with 420 miles range

[Iwritecode]

Do you have a specific brand name? A picture?

There are probably dozens of different TV antennas out there...

[Black Knight]

Also looking at some that are 300-350 range but all have the same set up

[bikendan]

HD TV antennas are a scam. If you have a HD tv, a rabbit ears antenna will work. I know because I used one.
It's the tv that has to be HD, not the antenna.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Forest River Forums mobile app

[Black Knight]

Thanks for input….sounds correct to me.

[cmulvey]

Most over the air antenna's have a mx range of 50 miles max. More often than not 25 to 35 miles.

An antenna claiming hundreds of miles? Snake oil.

[Black Knight]

I do agree so we purchased a Fire stick and us a hotspot. Thanks for your response.

[tonyz1]

I was wondering what antenna is on your rig now? Most of the stock antennas on campers, if they are turntable and not the omnidirectional type, will pick about as well as most of the so called HD antennas you can buy aftermarket.
But we do have a very cheap outside antenna at our house, which is out in the country, that picks up stations very well. It has a built in rotor and amplifier. And best of all, it was about $20. We plan on getting another to put up on an extendable mast next to our camper at our seasonal site. It will be a few feet higher than camper and hopefully will do a little better job than our stock antenna.
Happy camping.

[TwoKozy]

Going on a cross country trip. Plan on bringing our cardboard HD antenna. Use it at home to get local stations, works well to get ABC,CBS, NBC and Fox.
Traveled back and forth across USA last year with just the Furron(?) stock directional antenna. All we ever got was 20-50 digital channels like ION, GRIT, PBS, and lots of infomercial stations. Depends on the site and surroundings. Firestick,ROKU works the best with available wifi!!The stock tv in our 2020 Rockwood is not very smart......

[NJBreeze]

Originally Posted by bikendan

HD TV antennas are a scam. If you have a HD tv, a rabbit ears antenna will work. I know because I used one.
It's the tv that has to be HD, not the antenna.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Forest River Forums mobile app

An HD Yagi antenna isn't a scam, it is physics. You need to point them in the right direction and not have crappy cables and they will help substantially.

The problem is where to mount it and I leave it up to you. IF you have the old type of metal antenna that turns then that helps. Not sure what to do with those garbage plastic antennas on the new units.

[bergy]

Originally Posted by NJBreeze

An HD Yagi antenna isn't a scam, it is physics. You need to point them in the right direction and not have crappy cables and they will help substantially.

The problem is where to mount it and I leave it up to you. IF you have the old type of metal antenna that turns then that helps. Not sure what to do with those garbage plastic antennas on the new units.

I don't think bikendan was saying Yagi antennas are a scam, even one labeled HD. But the concept that HD TV requires an HD antenna is a scam.

You're absolutely correct that it's physics. But HD TV uses the same frequencies that the old SD TV broadcast system used, so the requirements for the antennas are the same, and an old antenna, like rabbit ears, will work as well for HD TV as it did for SD TV -- although it may be hard to tell. After all, one of the advantages of HD TV is that the picture will be perfect as long as there is enough signal to decode all the bits. When there's not, the picture will degrade in an HD way pretty darn fast.

[bubbles]

Originally Posted by NJBreeze

An HD Yagi antenna isn't a scam, it is physics

Regardless of its physical location, an antenna is specifically designed to receive over-the-air signals in the VHF and UHF bands. DTV uses the same frequency ranges as the analog TV standards, so an older antenna can still receive DTV broadcasts. I use a $4 rabbit ears at home for when my DISH SAT signal is lost. There is no difference in HD picture quality.

[tomkatb]

We have the plastic king antenna. Rotates with a strength meter.

Pleased with its range. Over 50 miles sometimes.

Quality of the plastic, it is all plastic, is awful. On our third one at over $100 in 4 years.

Hit one branch in the neighborhood and it will break.

[NJBreeze]

HDTV is broadcast at both UHF and VHF. Rabbit ears are for VHF. To say that Rabbit ears are good for HDTV are like saying bias ply tires are good for a Lamborghini. That the rabbit ears work is just based on a location with a good enough signal strength to make it work. Rabbit ears are essentially a 0dB gain antenna if they are even that. The directional antenna are probably up to 20dB. You double the signal strength for every 3dB so a 20 dB gain antenna is giving you essentially 14 times more signal.

Bandwidth isn't free and all the extra bandwidth you get in your picture comes from a higher bandwidth channel which requires a higher signal to noise ratio . Hence a better antenna would provide a greater level of service over a wider service area so you could say they are required. Go and try and watch a video in real time when you have 1 bar on your cell phone. If you could watch it the app would probably bump you right down to 480p or less.

In the old days we designed all of the cellular networks for car phones or bag phones. Then Motorola came up with the Microtac and we had to redesign the network for those handheld phones. 30 years down the road and networks are being drastically re-designed for 5G networks. Do you need a new phone for 5G networks? Of course you do.

So coming full circle if the goal of the FCC was to provide a HDTV service equal to the same area as SDTV then the only way you do that is with a huge increase in broadcast power or a change in receiver antenna. The huge increase in broadcast power is not something that could be entertained hence the need for a better receiver antenna.

Bandwidth isn't free but I guess sometimes an education is ehhh!

[Bob K4TAX]

Most stations transmitting HD signals moved to UHF frequencies. An issue with camping, the trees will attenuate the UHF signals to a greater degree than VHF signals. Plus UHF signals are more prone to travel in a straight line whereas VHF is a bit more prone to reflections.

Antennas with gain will be in your favor. Antennas with amplifiers will also help. The main point beyond these two items, more height related to the TV station will always be in your favor. Elevation related to the line of sight is a must. TV signals aren't found behind hills, in valleys, or in heavily forested areas.

Much newer TV's require more signal strength, measured in microvolts, to produce a picture. The great thing about HD digital TV is one has a great noise-free picture or a pixilated to no picture.

Typically one should expect no more than 35 to 50 mile, often less, range for HD digital TV, regardless of what the antenna claims.

[bubbles]

Originally Posted by NJBreeze

HDTV is broadcast at both UHF and VHF. Rabbit ears are for VHF. To say that Rabbit ears are good for HDTV are like saying bias ply tires are good for a Lamborghini.

Rabbit ears have, for years had a UHF hoop/bowtie antenna attached so just saying "rabbit ears" may be a misnomer.

[NJBreeze]

Originally Posted by Bob K4TAX

Most stations transmitting HD signals moved to UHF frequencies. An issue with camping, the trees will attenuate the UHF signals to a greater degree than VHF signals. Plus UHF signals are more prone to travel in a straight line whereas VHF is a bit more prone to reflections.

We say that VHF is "refracted" or bent and not reflected hence it's ability to work quite a bit better in hilly terrain. UHF and up hits that terrain or buildings and reflects. Something that is more line of site, (shorter wavelength) is easier to reflect off buildings and such. Trees hurt UHF more than VHF up in the cellular bands but not as much in the TV bands and the predominant attenuation of signal
in UHF TV is terrain.

[TwoKozy]

When we scan for channels using the factory directional antenna with our Furrion tv it comes back with many Digital channels and double the amount of RDH channels. What the heck is a RDH signal?