Winegard Air 360 antenna

[mtdawg]

My ORV is equipped with a Winegard Air 360 antenna. This is my first experience with this model of antenna. As near as I can tell other than making sure the little push button switch near the coax connection on the wall is turned on there are no other switches or adjustments. Compared to older trailers with other types of antennas this one just doesn't seem to be as good at picking up channels. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me. For testing purposes the trailer is parked in my driveway. With my other RVs I have always been able to get a minima of eight local channels over the air. With this antenna I am only able to get four. Just curious if my expectations are too high.

Jim

[BobinPA]

There are two buttons, did you get both of them or just one?

[mtdawg]

I never saw a second button, where is it?

[BobinPA]

I have one on each side of the outlet plate where the coax connector is. Each one turns on its own power light.
I don't know if they are all same or or not.

[litzdog911]

Your ORV only has one button to activate the off-air antenna preamp. With the button/light off, that TV will be connected to the exterior Cable TV connection instead of the off-air antenna.

[Cindyscar]

We have a 2023 Rockwood Signature travel trailer that has a Wingard 360 antenna (the one that looks like a boomerang) When camping, it literally gets ALL pixelated stations. In other words, nothing that you can watch. In my driveway, I get crystal clear OTA reception, but a limited amount of stations.

Consider this scenario: 3 Rockwood Signature rv's parked side by side. 2 are the exact 2023 models and have the same 360 antenna, the third is a 2024 model with a Wingard 360+5G antenna. The two 2023's got nothing but pixelated input after scanning for OTA channels. The 2024 had an abundance of crystal clear channels.

We are considering having the Wingard 360 replaced with the Wingard 360+5G, but can't find much on the subject to make a educated decision.

We are not looking for internet or wifi connections, or considering buying plans for the above. We just want the basic scanned OTA channels to watch when we are inside the rv. Any input will be greatly appreciated.

[wildtoad]

I have a 360 in my ‘25 BTCruiser and it works well. I’ve tried all kinds of OTA antennas and booster combos. It’s always a crap shoot, OTA has always been hit or miss ever since there has been OTA. To me the best overall is the Winegard Sensar IV but for day in day out quick setup the 360 IMO does just fine.

[Bill Gail]

X2 on the Winegard Sensar IV . I also added the Wingman to the antenna.
Pick up signals from 50 miles away .
The key to good reception is to point the antenna towards the transmitting tower .
To simplify locating the towers , I installed the DTV Antenna Locator app . on my phone .

[BuddyB119]

I recently purchased an East to West C Class with a Winegard 360 with 5G. I have been unsuccessful in finding any type of switches to put boosters on. I cannot get a clear picture. I have been told that there is buttons in the cabinets, but I cannot find any.
Does anybody have know where these switch may be?

[Parafango]

I would presume that one button is for the digital TV booster, which really does enhance the number ( and quality) of the OVA TV stations received.
The second, if installed, is most likely the Wi-Fi router/extender for connecting to campground Wi-fi, such as it is. Does the Wineguard 360 work better than batwings? It really depends on the rigs location, although I admit that the rigs I had batwings on, could change the direction the batwings were pointing, whereas the Wineguard 360 can not.

The Wi-Fi router/extender is physically located inside of the black dome of the antenna, which is really the Worst place for any electronics. In the summer, it will be very hot under that dome, which degrades any electronics performance.
For a test, the guy next to me at at campground, allowed me to connect to his starlink access point. I connected to it with my router, as if I was extending his network into my rig like you would at a campground, then, I connected directly to his starlink shared access point with my iPhone. Through the Wineguard router/extender, the throughput was much less than 1/2 of what I could get when connecting directly with the iPhone.
Granted there are a ton of variables and extra security that has to be managed when connecting through the router (i.e. internal processing in router), but the end result was crappy performance through the Wineguard router/extender.
SO, I don't use it that much.

[Melungeon]

There's a number of factors that will affect OTA TV reception; distance to transmitter probably tops the list. The Winegard Omni is an omni directional antenna. An omnidirectional will never have the range of a directional, normally only about half. The upside is you don't have to dedicate time and effort to aim them, it's just park and play. I don't believe the Omni has any VHF elements which are the channels that broadcast between 2-13.

I too am a fan of the old style Winegard Sensar and recently added the wingman attachment. I also replaced the OEM Winegard booster with a Sensar Pro. It has a signal strength meter for accurate aiming and a variable gain amplifier. It's a little pricey, but easily installed. It takes 12 VDC power which is already there and the coax connections. These additions made a noticeable improvement.

There are a number of phone apps and websites that assist in aiming a directional antenna. I really like this one: https://www.rabbitears.info/searchmap.php It gives a lot of information including the broadcast band.

You also have to be realistic in your expectations, The maximum range of any OTA antenna is about 70-75 miles, at that point the curvature of the earth becomes your enemy. Obviously terrain can be a limiting factor too. The smaller RV antennas with limited number of elements can never receive the channels you can with a fixed rooftop or tower mounted model.

Here's an antenna I'm probably going to buy and experiment with this spring: https://www.amazon.com/Televes-DiNov...9538328&sr=8-1

It's not really marketed as an RV antenna but seems to be small enough to work. It comes with an amp that automatically adjusts to the signal strength. It has VHF elements and I've seen actual tests where they pulled in signals from 60 miles away. I can't actually recommend it since I haven't tried it yet, but will do a post once I'm done.

[DutchmenSport]

I replaced the Rayzor antenna on the roof of my Montana Fifth Wheel after the shaft broke the 3rd time by hitting low hanging tree branches (I suppose). I replaced it with the Wingard 360+.

The Wingard 360+ is round and mounts to the roof flat. It's round nature allows low hanging branches to slip around it without damage.

Now, the difference is night and day from what I had before and what I have now.

With the Rayzor, I had to point it with the turn handle on the roof of the camper. When changing stations, it always meant getting up and turning the antenna. So, scanning a television for signals ALWAYS only brought in a small segment of what was available. If I moved the antenna again and rescaned, I'd get a new set of stations.

With the Wingard, it's Omni Directional, meaning it pickes up stations from all directions at the same time. The difference is night and day!

Sitting in my drive way at home, I can scan in over 80 channels. I find it interesting that sometimes the stations repeat .... 31.1, 31.2, 31.3 with one set of broadcast shows and then it repeats again 31.1, 31.2, 31.3 with a completely different broadcast station from a totally different geographical area.

And sometimes, the stations are black, and sometimes they get a lot of pixilation, and sometimes they work perfect on those oddity stations.

But in the house, using a UHF antenna on the roof with a booster on one television and no booster on the other we get just the normal (closer) 31.1, 31.2, 31.3 stations, not the doubles.

When traveling (and camping), we may get zero stations and then we may get 50. It all depends upon location, the age of your television, the wiring in your camper, and the design of your booster or lack of booster.

I find it interesting when we are at the Audubon State Historic Site in Louisiana there is one specific channel that broadcasts out of Baton Rouge. It is a pretty common station for the area we are at. But, our televisions (both of them), never scan it in. Yet, others say they get the channel just fine. I suppose, we are parked exactly in a small "dead zone" for that specific channel. If the trailer were moved 50 feet any direction, the station might come in. That's the only think I can figure. Still, our reception there is awesome! There's enough variety and we've never got the channel ... I suppose .... we'll never know what we are missing.

There are lots of variables you have to contend with. If you plugged in a different television, you might be surprised to get all the stations you expect. Try swapping out different televsions and see if there is a difference. You don't have to take the television off the wall, just unplug the coax cable and try another television. See what happens.