Community Forums

Pusherman · 01-28-2009, 07:23 AM

Winegard has come out with an attachment for the Batwing antenna which is optimized for UHF reception. It bolts on to your existing head, and reportedly increases UHF reception by 100%.

This may be important for Digital TV as DTV channels will broadcast on both VHF (existing 2-13) and UHF (14-51). Looks like a nice add to the Batwing antenna to help pick up DTV on UHF frequencies.

Here is a link to a description.

FLYTYER · 01-28-2009, 10:32 AM

This device looks like it might help a lot of us who use the Bat Wing. It may be relatively inexpensive.

JimElliott · 01-28-2009, 11:48 AM

I have heard the price is around $30.00 but to me thats sounds kind of low

Jim

smlranger · 01-28-2009, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jim_Elliott:
I have heard the price is around $30.00 but to me thats sounds kind of low

Jim

Just my got issue of RV View. Wingman is $26.99, CW President's Club price...

DonnaB · 01-29-2009, 09:05 AM

Just a note for your consideration when looking at the "Wingman". The webpage says compatible with all "crank-up" sensar antennas. I asked Winegard if it could be used on the automatic Sensar, as that is what we have. It cannot, so just FYI....their response below.

Donna,
The Wingman cannot be used with the automatic Sensar antennas, because it is too heavy, and the antenna cannot lift with the Wingman attached.

Kathy

Bill Davis · 01-30-2009, 04:42 AM

Saw one here in Yuma AZ yesterday and wondered "what is that?" If I get a chance to talk to the owner I will ask about it, and let y'all know.

LLonearth · 02-02-2009, 03:12 PM

I put the Wingman on my Sensar in time for the Super Bowl and did not have any momentary pixelation picture loss. We are in the Rio Grande Valley and before the Wingman the local NBC feed has been showing low 70's signal strength, which occasionally pixelated. With the Wingman the signal (still passed through the Dish Network High Def receiver) was in the mid 80's, so if you're hoping for a "100%" increase you're going to be disappointed but in our case the increased gain was enough to prevent occasional picture breakup.

The Wingman is not connected by coax to the Sensar. The Wingman is what is called a “director” in an Yagi antenna. Their function is to pick up signal that is actually radiated from your antenna and then redirect it back to your antenna again. The reason it helps your overall gain is that it re-radiates signal back in phase so your antenna gets more signal directed towards it. What allows it to work well is the spacing between the director and actual antenna element. I'm a happy camper, probably because I did not realistically expect a "100% improvement." Winegard's claim is up to 100% UHF gain and that probably means that on at least one UHF frequency the increased gain doubles. It won't have the same increase across all the channels from 14-69.

Belgique · 02-13-2009, 07:29 AM

CW is back ordered to March.

SCVJeff · 02-13-2009, 08:41 PM

Don't forget that "100% improvement" does not mean a 50 on the meter is now 100, it doesn't work like that.

The Wingman is available all over the web. I bought mine from Solid Signal for $19 a few weeks ago.

I brought home a $50k Spectrum Analyzer that I intend to to some quick tests on forward gain, Front to Side, and Front to back on the Sensar with and without the Wingman installed this weekend. There is an ongoing thread over on RV.net I'll post whatever I find along with analyzer pix for those who want to see them.

dirko · 02-14-2009, 10:41 AM

Hi Ho Jeff: F/B and F/Side is probably not very important for this application. Digital TV is not troubled with multipath like the old analog system (ghosts etc.) and interference is not normally an issue.

Forward gain is probably of interest, but often we are in a high signal area anyway and even that is of little concern. When I got HDTV here at home (Salt Lake City) I thought an off-the-air antenna would be a good idea. So just for a try I just put a piece of wire in the antenna jack. I get all local TV signals and have never had an outage. (Well, except for the occassional MPEG frame sync glitch)

I notice you are a ham, Jeff. Do you work in the wireless (what we used to call RF) industry?

Dirk W7KCC

SCVJeff · 02-14-2009, 09:57 PM

HERE is the test I ran today at the coach.

TrailerFool · 02-14-2009, 10:19 PM

So, does a +3dB gain equate to approx. a 15% improvement in UHF analog & digital reception on the Sensar antenna?

FLYTYER · 02-15-2009, 03:46 AM

Jeff, thanks for the good report. You are correct the Wingman is a keeper. This device will no doubt help our members a lot.

dirko · 02-15-2009, 01:39 PM

Hi Ho: Good job, Jeff. Just one suggestion: If you repeat such an "off-the-air" measurement you might try letting the spec an integrate the power over the band like you would for a S/N measurement. That way modulation and path effects can be averaged and a quantitative average gain can be displayed.

Have fun, Dirk