Where Do I Start Troubleshooting- TV reception problem

[SpeakEasy]

The TV that came in my travel trailer hasn't been able to receive any over-the-air channels when in the RV. Even when we were at a resort at the top of a mountain, fairly close to a city, there was no reception. The antenna in the RV is one of those batwing types that you crank up.

I took the TV out of the RV and brought it into my house and hooked it up to our roof antenna. Even at that it only picked up about 4 channels. (My regular TV can pick up about a dozen through this roof antenna.)

I'd like to be able to track down the cause of the no-reception in the RV. Where do I start?

Thanks,
-Speak

[MURPHY55347]

2nd the TV. Cheap tv's have cheap tuners. At our house we have 3 tv's. The Sony and the Samsung get 58 channels while the Insignia brand struggled to get 24.

[Bill_Satellite]

It was mentioned pretty early on that when you took the TV out of the RV and put it on a good working home antenna you still did not get many channels that the TV must be the culprit. Glad you found the power supply button as well!

[SpeakEasy]

Thanks to all for the great troubleshooting help.

I thought I had it nailed. I had not seen that there was a small button on the cover plate for the antenna and cable connection jacks in the camper. When I found that, and pressed it, the little green light came on. At that point I had brought another TV (that I knew worked) from the house to test that out in the camper. When I ran the scan, it now worked - with the set that I knew to be working.

I thought that was the end of it. But I brought the original TV back out to the camper, and it could not find a signal, even with that switch powered up.

So I'm back to square one. Evidently multiple causes. I am now back to thinking the TV is the culprit.

-Speak

[garyemunson]

The button on the wall plate has to have the amplifier powered up for antenna use. The picture above says 'red light' (as were all my previous RVs) but my new Winnnie has a green light. No light, poor or no reception from antenna! (and if it is on when hooked to cable instead of antenna, poor or no reception again)

[DutchmenSport]

You have tried taking the television into the house to see how it functions, can you now take one from the house (that you know works well) and put it in the camper and plug in the antenna and see how it functions? If it fails in the camper, then there's something going on with the wiring in the camper. If it run just fine, you know the problem is the television and not the camper.

Considering you took the television in the house and it did not function up to your expectations, chances are something could be wrong with the television.

We swapped out the television in our camper. It was mounted in one of those cabinets that raise and lower. The stations would come in sometime and sometimes not.

We finally figured it out. The coax cable connection on the back of the television was loose. No way to fix it unless we pulled the back of the television off, and I'm no TV repair man (my dad was, but I'm not!). Turns out, the constant bouncing of the trailer, causing the coax cable to bounce on the plug on the back of the television ended up damaging the connection.

We put the television in the house, on the wall in our bedroom and it works great there. I wiggled the wire to get a good over-the-air connection and never touched it again. Meanwhile, the new television in the camper is removed when in transport, and the cables are all disconnected.

Anyway, try it. Bring a known good television into the camper and see how it works. They will immediately eliminate television problem or camper problem.

[coolmom42]

MrWizard wrote:
if you did a channel scan in the house with 'input' set to antenna
and only got 4 ch
then you need a new TV

it is really that simple,
or you could have a repairman look at it
maybe the antenna connection is broken inside the TV set, so the receiver is not getting the signal

Haha I'm lucky to get 3 channels at my house with a big antenna!

[MrWizard]

yes

either a weak tuner
or a bad connection on the antenna input lead circuit

[RoyB]

Maybe do the reverse of what you have just done... Take a Digital TV from the house to the trailer and see what happens...

This pictorial for using the TV WALL PANEL might help too...


Also does your crank-up BAT WING antenna have dipoles on it like this photo...

Google Images

I get great HDTV reception with my OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer camping OFF-GRID...

Roy's image

Roy Ken

[SpeakEasy]

Yeah. I've done the "air" setting and a channel scan (a number of times, actually).

So the TV is the culprit?

-Speak

[MrWizard]

if you did a channel scan in the house with 'input' set to antenna
and only got 4 ch
then you need a new TV

it is really that simple,
or you could have a repairman look at it
maybe the antenna connection is broken inside the TV set, so the receiver is not getting the signal

[Lwiddis]

Speak, have you done a channel scan? Necessary every time you move for over the air.

[Old-Biscuit]

Crank up that Bat Wing Winegard antenna (add the 'wingman' for better reception)

AIM that Bat Wing Antenna towards the TV Towers
(Which way to AIM))

Turn ON booster....
TV Input set to 'AIR'
Auto Channel Search for available channels


THIS ^^^ has to be done EVERYTIME you move and set up RV

[BB_TX]

When connected to an antenna and doing a channel scan you should have a choice of "cable" or "air". Are you selecting "air" before doing a scan?

[mikebreeze]

I have a small older digital TV in my rig. I have to run a channel scan on it every time that I hook it up as well as set it if the signal is coming in via cable, OTA or video in. Then I can get a good number of channels.