Just because everything has gone digital in the modern age, that doesn’t mean you need to throw away all remains of the bygone technological era. We’re asked often whether you can use the classic batwing RV TV antenna that was once equipped on most RVs to receive a signal on digital flatscreen TVs.
The answer is yes, but there are a couple things to consider when doing so. In this lesson, RV expert Dave Solberg teaches you why batwings and digital TV are an all or nothing deal, and introduces a quick solution if you want to lengthen your reception distance. So hold onto that old antenna, it’s not out of a job just yet!
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Many broadcaster moved to the UHF band when digital transmission became available. The older antennas did not do to well in these frequencies. Therefore adding a Wingman to your antenna gave more signal in these frequencies. Also RF is still RF and its analogue, there is really no thing as a digital antenna, this signal is encoded as digital. That being said its amazing how many channels we pick up at campgrounds. I have Dish for my RV but still use the off air signal a lot.
Have a 2017 Thor freedom Elite 22FE my tv gets 1/2 channels how can I get more channels? I’m in my second month owning a rv….help!!
Hello Ron,
I would suspect you do not have an antenna booster or have an older bat
wing model that doesn’t have the distance for some of the digital
towers? I would suggest replacing your antenna with a Winegard
Rayzar Air Z1 which is easy to do and will provide more channels.
Check out the video on the site where we replaced the unit on a 5th wheel
in the middle of Iowa and jumped from 2 channels to 6!
Thanks,
David RVRC Video Membership