antennae galore

air66stream · 10-13-2008, 09:57 PM

I have a few questions on the front of my 66 Overlander.

The antenna on the left I assume is for a radio. Does the aluminum body make this a necessity for a radio to work well, and is it something I can pick up at Radio Shack?

The center item is some sort of a latch. I assume it is for the rock guard that is missing in action and will soon be ordered. Or is it?

The antenna to the right seems to be for a TV. I intend to change this out for a cable hook-up which I hear are at a lot of campgrounds now.

The second pic shows what looks to be a second TV antenna and a clamp for an antenna pole. Which of these would be original, if either?

I am wondering also if I should route the cable hook-up to the rear of the trailer with the rest of the hook-ups. It seems like they should all be somewhat close together.
Thanks in advance for any input. TomE

goransons · 10-13-2008, 10:12 PM

you might find this helpful from the vintage airstream club's website (airstream.net), its the entire manual for that year. Yes the antenna is original (radio one on the left there). you can replace the wire on the back if it is somehow damaged. It is a standard thread for antenna connections on the back, so a universal replacement pigtail would get it back to normal. I've not found a similiar mount aftermarket but others have been successful with that. Not sure about the middle, guessing yours is right. The stuff on the right is similiar but not exact to what was on ours, some type of crank up folding tv antenna setup. I'm trying to come up with a tasteful patch for the hole in ours (once I figure out how to cut a nice circle or something)

hope the link is helpful.

http://www.airstream.net/members/doc...s%20Manual.pdf

air66stream · 10-16-2008, 08:40 PM

Thanks for the info. I do happen to have all the original books and papers that came with my 66. My brother-inlaw got the unit from the original owners family, and all I can say is that they must have been pack-rats. I even have a little blue Wally Byam song book. It's not dated, but it looks as old as the trailer.

I am planning on removing both of the TV antennae at the front end. Does anyone know for sure if the campgrounds that provide cable use the standard cable coax? And if I add that to my Overlander, shouldn't I put the cable hookup at the rear of the trailer with the other hookups?

I am still trying to come up with a rock gaurd to cover the front window without dropping a couple hundred bucks. Any ideas on that??

TomE

Journalist · 10-17-2008, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by air66stream

Does anyone know for sure if the campgrounds that provide cable use the standard cable coax?

Cable service at campgrounds is standard coax.
I installed a stainless steel marine type cable/telephone plug made by Hubbell in the skin of the AS. Keeps the plug sealed up and clean until I need it. I also have the goofy overpriced telephone cable that fits this connector. I did that when I was fulltiming for a while in order to have a good weatherproof connection for a phone and DSL setup. Now, I have the matching box installed on the side of my house that ties into my home telephone and cable for guests to use if they want to stay in the AS instead of the guest room.(I encourage this when my in-laws come to visit!) The Hubbell plug blends right in and looks like it was put there by the factory.

TomW · 10-17-2008, 04:56 AM

Tom,

The antenna on the left looks a lot like the CB radio antenna on my '67 Airstream. You can read more about what I did here.

The dangling wire on the right looks like 300 ohm flatlead wire commonly used for television in the sixties. I tried installing balun transformers on both ends of it to convert to campground's 75 coax, but lost a lot of signal strength. So I ran a new coax wire to the back of the coach (just like you're thinking).

FWIW, I have a somewhat original rockguard installed that still looks nice. But if it were to break tomorrow, I doubt it would be replaced. New, flat glass or Lexan is not that expensive (compared to a rockguard), and I don't think the appearance of a rockguard is necessarily an improvement to my Overlander's look.

Tom