'Weak' TV

[bruceh]

My reception for TV has gone downhill. At a usual camping spot, my friend camped right next to me gets all of my home stations and I get none. At home, I can get all of the TV stations. The camping spot is about 80 miles from home.

We both have Winegard batwings and Winegard amps. We are both using digital converters with old analog TVs. We both have Winnebagos although different models and they are both 2001.

How do I go about troubleshooting this? Would the amp be a likely suspect? The TV seems to be out of the picture as the digital converter box shows no signal strength.

Thoughts welcome,

[azloafer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bruceh My reception for TV has gone downhill. At a usual camping spot, my friend camped right next to me gets all of my home stations and I get none. At home, I can get all of the TV stations. The camping spot is about 80 miles from home. We both have Winegard batwings and Winegard amps. We are both using digital converters with old analog TVs. We both have Winnebago's although different models and they are both 2001. How do I go about troubleshooting this? Would the amp be a likely suspect? The TV seems to be out of the picture as the digital converter box shows no signal strength. Thoughts welcome,

Is your digital converter a "pass through converter"? A pass through converter allows some non-digital stations to be seen...if there are even any left anymore. Try it with the amp off and on when you are at home where you do get stations. When you turn the amp off the picture should be bad or none at all. This will tell you if the amp is working. One last thing that you could try is to borrow your friends converter and see if it works at the campground when yours does not; could be a bad one.
Happy travels, Joe

[Gary RVRoamer]

I'd guess your converter is not wired in properly (assuming it never worked), a cable connection is bad, or your amp has failed.

[flash1942]

Bruce,I just had this same problem. I was just about to buy a new antenna. But first I tried a different convertor box( because it was easy and I had a spare).Then I checked to see if there was 12 volts at the roof antenna. Unscrew the coax at antenna and you should have 12 volts between inner conductor and outside shield.If you have 12volts, your amplifier is working.However,you MAY still have a connection with resistance or a bad cable.I was losing only the lower numbered channels because these are usually the weaker signals. (Look at antennapoint.com) I tried a different coax cable from antenna, down side of RV,through door to tv selector box.Still had problem! To get to all connectors on back of tv selector box, I had to remove DVD player,convertor box and 6 screws on inner cover. A real pain.After reseating all coax connectors on rear of selector box,problem was solved. I now receive all channels in this viewing area and some from 80 miles away. Good Luck, Lloyd