tv antenna for a boat ?

[canmaker]

hi everyone , the wife would like to put a small tv in the boat , I was just wondering what to use for an antenna , any ideas ? . thanks .

 

[colbyt]

Re: tv antenna for a boat ?

With everything being digital now it more or less depends on how far you are from the signal. A simple loop or rabbit ears may be all you need. Or you may need a main mast with a really big antenna.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: tv antenna for a boat ?

The problems would be similar to the problems the RV folks have.
Consider an RV TV ANtenna ?

Or even a Marine TV Antenna ?

 

[arks]

Re: tv antenna for a boat ?

I use a Shakespeare 2030 antenna with a 120v signal booster. It's mounted inside the flybridge under the helm. My marina is about 30 miles from Baltimore and it picks up 11 digital stations. Without the booster it's only 4 or 5.

 

[joed]

Re: tv antenna for a boat ?

The omni directional ones that look like a flying saucer are probably your best bet. They are small and streamlined and some come with amplifiers.

 

[jhebert]

Re: tv antenna for a boat ?

With everything being digital now it more or less depends on how far you are from the signal.

Reception of any radio signal has always been dependent on the distance between transmitter and receiver, and how the signal has been modulated does not affect the path loss, although it can affect how much signal is needed to produce a useful outcome.

When commercial television broadcast stations in North America changed to the Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) recommendation for transmission of their signal, one significant change implemented at the same time was the reallocation by the FCC of the lower VHF Television Band to other services. The effect of this was to move most television broadcast stations into the UHF Television Band, although some stations remained or relocated to the high-band of VHF Television. The influence of this on antenna design for broadcast television reception is that it is no longer useful for a TV antenna in North America to be designed for the low-VHF band; this reduces the size of the antenna significantly. If all the stations in your region are now UHF, you can use a-UHF-only antenna, which will be smaller than high-VHF and UHF combination antennas.

When stations shifted to the ATSC method of transmission, the FCC recomputed their anticipated coverage areas on the new channels they would be moving to. They also factored in the signal modulation technique and what signal level at the receiver the FCC thought necessary to produce the same coverage as under the prior method. The result is that the coverage areas are or should be the same as before, and, in many cases, they are better, that is, people now receive more stations than ever before.

In practice it has been observed that the ATSC signals are prone to problems created by multi-path reception. Omni-directional antennas are the most prone to problems with multi-path. Because of this, practical results are usually improved by use of directional antennas, not so much for the gain they produce but for the attenuation of multi-path signals.

 

[stratcat88]

Re: tv antenna for a boat ?

Reception of any radio signal has always been dependent on the distance between transmitter and receiver, and how the signal has been modulated does not affect the path loss, although it can affect how much signal is needed to produce a useful outcome.

When commercial television broadcast stations in North America changed to the Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) recommendation for transmission of their signal, one significant change implemented at the same time was the reallocation by the FCC of the lower VHF Television Band to other services. The effect of this was to move most television broadcast stations into the UHF Television Band, although some stations remained or relocated to the high-band of VHF Television. The influence of this on antenna design for broadcast television reception is that it is no longer useful for a TV antenna in North America to be designed for the low-VHF band; this reduces the size of the antenna significantly. If all the stations in your region are now UHF, you can use a-UHF-only antenna, which will be smaller than high-VHF and UHF combination antennas.

When stations shifted to the ATSC method of transmission, the FCC recomputed their anticipated coverage areas on the new channels they would be moving to. They also factored in the signal modulation technique and what signal level at the receiver the FCC thought necessary to produce the same coverage as under the prior method. The result is that the coverage areas are or should be the same as before, and, in many cases, they are better, that is, people now receive more stations than ever before.

In practice it has been observed that the ATSC signals are prone to problems created by multi-path reception. Omni-directional antennas are the most prone to problems with multi-path. Because of this, practical results are usually improved by use of directional antennas, not so much for the gain they produce but for the attenuation of multi-path signals.

uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh what?

 

[NYBo]

Re: tv antenna for a boat ?

uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh what?

Mr. Hebert is quite learned in the area of electronic esoterica, sometimes to a fault when dealing with us mere mortals.

 

[jhebert]

Re: tv antenna for a boat ?

uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh what?

I could try to repeat my explanation for you, but I am not sure what portion of it caused you a problem in comprehension. If you could be more specific, I could try to explain further.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: tv antenna for a boat ?

Let me try to summarize it.

For reasons that you won't understand, the chanel that you think you are watching is not on the chanel that they advertise.
For example, our local VHF Chanel 3 is actually transmitted on UHF Channel 17.
By the Magic of electronics your TV figures out that it needs to tune to ch17 to watch what you think is ch3.

None of this means anything to you, what it does mean is that buying a Super deluxe VHF Antenna to watch ch3 will be money wasted.
What you really want is the Super Deluxe UHF antenna that receives ch17 well.

The Moral of the story is if you are going to buy an Antenna, Get a UHF Antenna that is advertised for ch14+ because most of the stations identified as ch13 and below are secretly transmitting on ch14 and above.

HERE is the Secret Decoder Ring for those that are interested.
The Virtual Channel listed, is the one you tune your Remote Control to.
The Digital Chanel listed, is the Actual Transmitted Channel.