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Topic ClosedReplace Batwing with Dish ANT
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GlueGuy View Drop Down
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Joined: 15 May 2017
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Posts: 2629 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Replace Batwing with Dish ANT
    Posted: 28 Oct 2019 at 7:45pm
The SKYBOXE UFO antenna claims "720°Dual-Omni-Directional". Ain't no such thing. The maximum direction for an omni antenna is 360°. 

I would look at this with very skeptical eyes.
bp
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mcarter View Drop Down
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Joined: 07 Apr 2016
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Posts: 3419 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2019 at 4:02pm
The Skyboxe to my knowledge is directional. There is some work and modifications that would be required to mount it on my Pod, and I'm not that fascinated by TV to do that. If I can't get OTA TV, I start going thru DVDs.
Mike Carter
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David and Danette View Drop Down
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Posts: 1214 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2019 at 11:29am
   I prefer not to watch TV much when camping or at home but my wife does because she is disabled unable to do much walking. There is a Omni antenna that got my attention but not many reviews because it is fairly new, I found it on amazon.com its name is SKYBOXE UFO price $117 but not sure if it would be much better than the Magnadyne or the Omni Pro but am a little curious.
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GlueGuy View Drop Down
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Posts: 2629 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2019 at 9:52am
Originally posted by mcarter

Thanks, the day I changed antennas was within hours of tests with no weather change. The test showed an improvement with the Magnadyne. The King OmniPro is advertised at 50-60 miles, while the Magnadyne, rated at 35 is closer to 25 I think.
Don't go by "distance", look at the published gain for the antenna. In VHF/UHF bands a gain of 6 or 7 is as about as good as you can get in an omni. You can get higher gains, but really only with a very large directional antenna (which is really what the batwing is).

Many antenna sellers don't publish gain information, in which case, I would just look elsewhere. The other issue with many so-called omni antennas is that they aren't really omni-directional, but have high and low gain lobes. I've never seen an antenna seller publish the antenna gain plot, maybe because most consumers wouldn't know what they're looking at anyway.
bp
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Joined: 25 Jul 2011
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Posts: 6128 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2019 at 8:41am
Looks good, glad it improved the reception.. The earlier Pods came with a omni-directional saucer style.. when the bat wing was introduced many new owners reported reception that seemed way less.. but we honestly only used ours a couple of times.. 3 years in with the Lance, and the antenna has never been turned on except the first weekend here to make sure it worked.. If we are in a park, with cable, we will usually tune that in, mostly to check the weather.
I know I have seen many big rigs over the years that appeared to be using one of the flat wire stick on antennas stuck to a drivers window or side window, rather then the crank up / directional on top..
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Posts: 3419 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Oct 2019 at 7:33pm
Thanks, the day I changed antennas was within hours of tests with no weather change. The test showed an improvement with the Magnadyne. The King OmniPro is advertised at 50-60 miles, while the Magnadyne, rated at 35 is closer to 25 I think.
Mike Carter
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Posts: 1214 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Oct 2019 at 3:35pm
   I installed a King OmniPro  omnidirectional antenna and we receive almost as many stations as we did with the crank up bat wing antenna in our old camper the Vibe. But that is only when the weather is rainy or very humid cloudy days on sunny days and low humidity there are stations that we will not get so it depends upon the weather as to how many stations we get. All stations are about 50 or 60 miles away in Huntsville Alabama there are no local stations. 
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Posts: 3419 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Oct 2019 at 9:22am
Good question. The Magnadyne has two cables going into the base of the ANT dish. One is a coax for TV the other is a Motorola connector for AM/FM to radio. There is no 12V wire like the batwing had. Also the batwing had the AM/FM ANT signal from the distribution plate to the radio. The sole 12V connection is at the distribution plate and powers the TV/Cable switch. In reading the reviews I noticed a buyer having issues with the "AMP" switch staying ON (it wasn't), which was a major issue I had with the batwing. I actually have two like distribution plate assys for my batwing, as I was constantly battling with it. The Magnadyne tech support answer was replace the ANT dish, which fixed the issue. I looked on line for a discussion about the ANT dish workings, but as yet, no joy.
Mike Carter
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GlueGuy View Drop Down
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Posts: 2629 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Oct 2019 at 9:53pm
We use a DTV antenna here at home. We get many dozens of channels, including at least 8 PBS channels. The unit we use here has a built-in amp, and the amp is powered through the same coax as the TV signal. Is that the way the Magnadyne works?
bp
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Posts: 3419 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Oct 2019 at 5:30pm
I agree, the Magnadyne is available. What I liked was the getting rid of the 12V wiring and the distribution cable to radio unit. Just a simpler, less complicated install.
Mike Carter
2015 178
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