It Was Time for Better Reception

Although my Overlander came with a factory-installed, VHF antenna, I opted for a UHF bowtie antenna for our adventures because it was much smaller, and UHF stations were more common around here than VHF.  When all of the TV stations were required to go digital, my Airstream was good to go because digital TV frequencies are in the UHF range.

But it appears that many stations are broadcasting their digital offerings with less power.  My simple bowtie, on multiple outings, just was not up to the challenge.  So Santa delivered a new, digital, RV antenna from PPL last Christmas.

The swap-out was relatively easy.  The only issue was the mounting pole.  The original was round, and the new one was square.  Since I wanted to use the Overlander’s antenna rotator, my buddy Dan machined me an adapter.

What a difference!  Up to this point, we have never been able to pick up local stations in the driveway because there is a mountain between us and the transmitters.  But the new Winegard picked up all of them PLUS their sidebands PLUS Public TV.  I was impressed.

We used the new antenna on last week’s trip to the beach to monitor the weather, and Kim was one happy camper.

While not quite as unobtrusive as the bowtie, it does fold up well.

While packing for the beach trip, I noticed the Airstream’s original TV antenna sitting quietly in the corner, and moved it into the Shop for a better look.  It was bigger than I remembered.

Remembering that the same mountain that interferes with TV reception also hampers reception of Public Radio on my Shop’s, I wondered if that big ole 47 year-old antenna would work better than the existing, simple dipole thumb-tacked to the wall.

Since the Shop’s ceilings are 10-feet tall, the decision was made to mount the antenna to the ceiling.  Rough cherry works well for FM applications.

The mount’s placement was chosen based on the unfolded-out size of the antenna.  After screwing the mount to the ceiling, and then unfolding the potential super-station-getter, I found that the antenna’s 8-foot span would not be realized with the mount where it was.

Fortunately, it was easy enough to relocate the mount to the other side of the light.

Success - The results were worth considerably more than the effort.  Although the antenna itself does not bother me, the wire does.  I might, one day, run the wire through the attic space.  If I end up going to that much effort, I will probably relocate the antenna there too while I am at it.

But the next project will probably be to connect an HD radio tuner to the Shop’s setup I have that did not work well in my truck.  If it works well, I might just have to get another old Airstream antenna for the truck.

Just kidding.


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Stereo Is Not Dead At My House

When it comes to enjoying music or movies, I am of the old “I only have two ears, and all’s I need is two really big speakers” school of thought. Dolby 7.1 is the rage nowadays, and if it had been around 20 years ago I would probably have 7 speakers & one subwoofer in my den. But for what I generally listen to, a decent stereophonic setup is fine.

I was almost forced to change my approach a few weeks when my third Luxman receiver bit the dust. None of the local big-box stores offered a replacement which only drove two speakers. While the Internet offered a small selection of suitable direct-replacements, my desire to upgrade to a tuner capable of decoding HD Radio signals reduced receiver offerings to zero. It was time to consider the individual component route.

Better sound quality & general versatility are the highlights of building a sound system piece-by-piece. But doing so is usually pricey due to what I consider a “snob cost” being added to each component by the manufacturer (real audiophiles should be willing to pay more). Fortunately, I only needed a tuner and pre-amplifier since main amplification is done by a very snobbish (back in the day) Yamaha amplifier.

Surprisingly, new HD Radio tuner prices are not that bad. That bit of cheer helped offset the fact that new pre-amp prices are still ridiculously high. Fortunately there’s eBay. I was able to win a more-than-suitable Onkyo P-3200 pre-amp for what I thought was a reasonable cost. And it worked as advertised when I got it.

After re-assembling Stereo Central with a new HD Radio tuner, and the gently-used Onkyo pre-amp, life appeared to be complete.


Unfortunately, my cordless headphones didn’t much care for the new setup.


Since I get a lot of mileage out of headphones at night when everyone else is asleep & I want to watch TV, the headphones’ disdain was not taken lightly.

The problem was that the headphones’ base station used to be plugged into the receiver’s headphone jack, and there is no headphone jack on the new setup. I had hoped the headphones would work well on a line out jack. They did not – the signal-to-noise ratio made them unlistenable.

Remembering that computer speakers have a built-in, low power amplifier, an old set was cannibalized for the effort.


Velcro is easier than driving screws into solid TN white oak.


Life is now idyllic again. A big shout-out to eBay-er onekg70 for helping it happen.



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