Winegard tv antenna

[La.Paul]

I have a 2003 Sea breeze recently purchased, and it still has the original antenna, selector box and analog tv up front. I installed a digital converter box between selector box and tv1 (front tv) but can only get 2 channels even after doing searches when turning antenna about 10 degrees between searches. Even these 2 channels come in poorly, cutting in and out. We have many more local digital channels in the area. When I turn the 12 volt power off at selector box, I get no channels, so I assume antenna is powered. Is it possible that the transistors are faulty in the antenna and would replacing antenna with Sensar model with batwing for additional UHF capability likely solve my problem? It looks like the replacement would be fairly straight forward and relatively easy. Any suggestions welcome. ( I have digital tv in back, and it gets same 2 channels, poorly as well)

[wa8yxm]

There are many posibilities.. I will cover a few:

#1 on the list is bad cable, I"ve seen bad cables including the one least likely to go bad.

Bad amplifier

Bad selector switch

Bad converter.

[La.Paul]

Thanks for info. Is it difficult to pull new cable through to antenna? (If I hook new cable to old cable any tricks?)

[wildtoad]

Can you bypass the selector box temporarily to help isolate the problem. Go from the ant. to converter to tv. As you did, make sure booster switch is on then scan. If things are good, then add in the selector box and try again. You should not need to rescan.

You might go up on roof and check the connection points. There is one at the head of the antenna and perhaps one where the cable goes into the roof. Check for loose fittings and corrosion. I had a failure at the roof connection.

I doubt there is anything wrong with the antenna, wiring (connections) perhaps. It is very rare that a piece of coax cable goes bad unless crimped or the connections are exposed to weather. I had an '88 Winnebago with org Winegard and it worked great with new tv. I did get the add-on Wingman for it and think it did help. My 2001 Hurricane also has orig ant. no Wingman but still gets 17+ channels in my front yard.

Good luck.

[wa8yxm]

How hard it is to pull new cable depends. How hard it is to pull a test cable is easy.

To test, Grab a handy length of RG-59 or RG-6 (Does not much matter for this test) long enough to run from the open antenna switch box or the multi-switch ANT connection. out the window, up to the antena (extended) on the roof, If this fixes it you have identified the problem.. If not, try the other run (Switch to converter)

Now, as to pulling cable ... Most likely suspect cable is roof to antenna.. there is a connection at the roof line, it's covered in goo (Dicore non-self leveling caulk) but it's there. that one is easy.

The other one.. may or may not be depending on how it's routed, the good news is that as far as cables go it's the LEAST LIKELY suspect.

Still.. the one time I had a rig with a bad cable.... that was it.

[Retired and Happy]

There are electronics in the batwing. I had to replace them several years ago. Don't recall if it was just the circuit board or the whole batwing. When digital came in a couple years ago I got several stations with the batwing, but got several (many?) more and stronger with the Wingman added. I think that was about the time of the complete switchover, so a lot of new stations could have come on about that same time.

[La.Paul]

Thanks everyone. I'll try those suggestions, won't be until next week. I'll post and let y'all know how it worked out and what I found.

[La.Paul]

Well it looks like it was a bad antenna head. The cable connection to antenna looked good, weather guard still intact. I replaced the head with new amplified Winegard with wingman extension, and voila! Went from two channels with poor reception to 10 channels with clear reception. Didn't even have to adjust antenna direction, but all local channels here are basically north or south of my house. The coax cable going to antenna is a little stiff or "brittle", will probably need replacement at some time, but doesn't seem to be a problem currently. Thanks for everyone's input!

[Hiway]

New guy here... certified data, video, and voice over ip tech. I have years in the trenches with cable issues.

In the future, should anyone have concerns over their cabling please send a pm and I will be happy to assist if I can.

I will say that rg59 is not only extremely poor (as most already know I would hope) but the tech in how the connectors and fittings on pre 1997 installed cabling are all pretty much crap and will deteriorate.

Once my lady and I are out on the road- I will always have a spool of RG 6 and my compression fittings, splitters, and tools, and possibly a meter on board. Troubleshooting on site wherever we are at will be my pleasure.

One more tip- if you run an amplifier, and the fittings are not upgraded or a cable issue is present, then the amp will increase the problem and poor reception. Rule of Thumb- low cannel reception issues are usually due to poor contacts of center conductors (fittings are loose or bad) and higer channels fuzzy are a sign the cable itself is kinked, crimped, or cut or scraped.)

Dirty side down folks!