Over the air TV reception with crank up Winegard enhanced with Wingman

sc3283 · 10-29-2011, 06:36 PM

I have a factory installed crank up Winegard on my Dynasty. I live in a fringe air south of the city aprox 40 miles. 12 channels would come in, with 6 being watchable full time. The other 6 were hit and miss.

I installed the Wingman kit for the antenna this morning, a 5 minute install

Now have 21 channels that are watchable at anytime

Nice to have an advertised item do as claimed!!

wa8yxm · 10-29-2011, 07:57 PM

I have, somewhere here in the motor home. the software that shows just exactly how effective the Wingman is once you plug in a few numbers..

Since one of the things we ham radio operators do in addition to building our own "power supplies" (I mentioned this in another thread) is Build antennas.

Yes, in fact there is only one way it can fail to perform if properly installed (NO uhf stations in range)

beachboy27 · 10-30-2011, 08:55 PM

What is a Wingman kit?

njs42 · 10-30-2011, 09:27 PM

Low cost add on to the batwing antenna---available at CW and other places. Seems to me it was 30 bucks---maybe more. Easy install---particularly good if you stay in more remote areas---in a major market you are close enough to the signals that it is not as noticeable.

H. Miller · 10-31-2011, 04:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beachboy27

What is a Wingman kit?

GOOGLE is a wonderful thing!
Try "winegard wingman"

puttin · 10-31-2011, 06:34 AM

Here's the kit...looks like I'll need to get one of these little gems.http://www.winegard.com/kbase/upload...%20RV-WING.pdf

leadman · 11-05-2011, 09:20 PM

I installed a wingman last fall and it really made a difference in the reception. Was a good investment.

wa8yxm · 11-06-2011, 11:25 AM

I have found since installing the Wingman on my Winegard.

There is so much Over the Air television that is good (I like the "old" channels like THIS TV and RETRO TV and even MY TV many of which are on tier 2,, that is channel n.2) that Sat TV would be a waste of money.

There are, however, some places where OTA don't cut it.. Like where I'm now parked.

But... FREE CABLE once again makes Sat... Not worth the time to make the phone call.

Ramblin · 11-06-2011, 12:06 PM

I too was amazed how well the wingman performed. It was a simple 5 minute install requiring no tools. What baffles me is, there was NO electrical connection between the wingman add-on, and the existing antenna. I don't understand how it works, but it does.

IC2 · 11-06-2011, 02:42 PM

I installed a Wingman after I had to install a new antenna (that's another story). I can now see channels I never knew existed.

Don't pay CW the $30 to do it - it only takes a very few minutes and a pair of pliers - take longer to get up on the roof

puttin · 11-07-2011, 10:58 AM

Ramblin,

I think it works by induction- the Wingmand sits attached to the head (which does most of the work after the elements have picked up the signals). It's just another set of elements in addition to the two big ones.

wa8yxm · 11-07-2011, 01:37 PM

The Technical description of The Wingman is "A UHF director array"

Antennas have 3 types of elements (normally, there are a few special cases)

Active elements.. The "Wings" and some hidden "Wings" inside the head are the active elements on the Bat-wing. (The Wings are VHF, the ones hidden are UHF)

Reflectors.. The Reflector element is slightly longer than the active and it's located behind the active element. The Bat-wing does not use this type of element. There is usually only one Reflector, but again, Not always.

This element "Reflects" the signal back to the active element (hence it's name) thus increasing the gain of the antenna.

Director: This element (or elements) is/are shorter and placed in front of the active element.. They tend to "Draw" the attention of the antenna in their direction. Again they thus increase the gain.

I've seen some that are like 44 elements.
That's usually a corner type reflector (This is shaped something like a "less Than" symbole (<) with the active element (just one) inside the "V" and 42 directors.

That would be one HIGH GAIN antenna.

Yagi antennas designed for wide, or multi band (Old fashion VHF/UHF for example) will have multiple active elements, phased. HOWEVER on any given frequency only one element is active. The shorter actives act as Directors and the longer ones as reflectors.. Which is why the antenna is tapered.