Is Poor TV Reception Due to Vent Covers?

[Sammy99]

We had the vent covers installed on our new 2017 25' Flying Cloud prior to taking delivery of our trailer so have no basis for comparison of how good the TV reception was prior to installation. We are 3 weeks into our shakedown cruise and find that we get really poor reception. We have the Winegard Road Star Omnidirectional antenna. Our neighbors get 20 channels and we get 4, and those don't come in most of the time. From looking at related posts, it seems that the dish antenna should be not obstructed and for sure should be higher than the next door structures. The vents are 3 inches above the antenna, and the AC on the backside is maybe an inch taller. Is this causing our poor reception? Do any others have this problem and do you have any solutions? The dealer didn't mention anything about this when selling us the vent covers. Thanks for any recommendations!

PS: I have 2 other threads on poor reception with cable and also how the bedroom TV gets channels when the living room TV does not

[Adventure.AS]

Do you have the antenna booster switched on?

[Sammy99]

Yes we do. Turn off when trying cable and on with air TV

[Al and Missy]

Do your neighbors have the same antenna? The omni-directional antennas are not as sensitive.

To answer your question(s), the vent covers should not affect reception but the AC might if the transmitter is in that direction. Another problem area is vent fans and LED dimmers creating interference.

Al

[AirstreamInc]

Hi Sammy99,

We're sorry to learn about the tv reception issue you described in your 2017 25' Flying Cloud. Please call our customer service and technical support team at*1 (877) 596-6111, option 2 so we can learn more and help.

Thanks.

[JeffC16]

Hi Sammy99,
This is my first post here as a new Airstream owner. Your issue hits directly home with us as we just completed our 3rd shake down trip this past weekend. We too have a 25' 2017 FC and I learned over the weekend that we are also getting very little to little reception but what I did learn is when I turn on the LED ceiling lights in fron ot the trailer with dimmer on low, the front TV sgnal goes digital/garbled. When I increase the dimmer to full intensity, I lose all signal. I also found out the same behaviour occurs with the front TV signal when I turn on the LED ceiling lights in the rear bedroom are and same happens with dimmer also. All other light have no affect, just LED's. Regarding the rear bedroom TV, I have tried everything and cannot even get a single channel to populate. So far, this is the most severe of issues we've discovered. Our antenna is also a Winegard. Hopefully it isn't too serious but for this kind of money, you should really expect more.

[jimfa440]

While I'm not surprised that Sammy99 has a problem that he posted on Air Forums, I'm pleasantly surprised that Airstream in Oh-H-Ten would notice and promptly respond with an offer to help him. Add this to the list of reasons that I love Airstream.

[wave man]

After reading this I did a test and am observing a 100% correlation between ceiling LEDs and TV signal interference! I guess I just like dimmer lighting in a room and am preoccupied enough to not see it... doh

I had been a little peevish about the poor signal (so I thought) but was inclined to deal with it because I'm a bit out from the city proper in Houston. It also didn't help that I had no prior experience with over the air digital tv to compare it to, and didn't know what I should be expecting for signal reception from this antenna..

This is a brand new FC25 and I have to ask ... IS there a solution to this? I can work around it if other lighting doesn't cause the issue... Don't live in front of the TV after all.

AND someone mentioned an Antenna Booster? what?! where?!

Anyone?
Thanks in advance...
BC

[uraljohn]

We have a 2017 Int. Serenity 23D and have the Fantastic Fan vent covers. I installed them myself after a few months of ownership. No effect on TV reception. We keep our Airstream at our home in Hendersonville, N.C. Not exactly a big city. We get 6 channels here. In Melbourne, Florida at Land Yacht Harbor in December we received a bunch (25+) of channels. Always run booster except when you want to auto program TV when hooked to cable. Antenna booster will interfere with cable signal. Turn off the LED lights as they will interfere with antenna signal. Good luck and enjoy your new Airstream. Happy travels.

[uraljohn]

Behind TV on the wall there should be a small white button on the plate that antenna wire goes to. Push button in to activate. I get NO channels without booster being on.

[Wconley]

We have 2009 27FB so it has the old Winegard crank up antenna. When I replaced all my interior lighting with LEDs I noticed that weak TV signals get garbled as soon as I turn on the LED ceiling lights. I can turn on the dinette lights or counter lights that aren’t close to the ceiling with little impact. I’m not sure if this correlates to your problem as I have no dimmer in my trailer. As mentioned above, I’ve heard the new Omni directional antenna is not as sensitive as our old crank up.

[AI927]

I have a 2018 Interstate and have the same problem. Anytime I use the ceiling lights, which are on a dimmer I stop getting about 2/3 to 1/2 of the stations. I also have the same problem when I use the bathroom fan. I have the small fan with a handle that you push up and then press a button. I don't know what fan is in your units but I would be interested in hearing if you have problems with the fan also. By the way I have the Winegard Roadstar Omnidirectional antenna also.

Reading information from Winegard my antenna is too close to surrounding objects on the roof but I don't think that is the route cause of this issue.

[dasams]

TV reception is limited to ~35 miles with the new omni-direction antennas. Like the OP, it's common for us to get limited channels when in a metropolitan area.

While at the AS dealer recently, I noticed a new unit that had greater range but I wan't willing to pay the price. I sure wish AS would make the newer unit standard or at least give a buyer the option of having it installed.

[JeffC16]

Just to be clear, the button is pushed in and the Winegard antenna is on for air/digital reception. It is NOT about being too far out in the boonies to receive or not receive reception. There is a serious connectivity issue in play here and the LED lights being on have something to do with it. As I stated, when the LED's are off, I get perfect reception and many channels on the front TV only. For the rear TV, nothing works, I can''t get a single channel, no matter what I do. When LED's are on, either in rear or front (on low dimmer setting) the front TV then loses some channels and the signal becomes garbled/digitized, unable to watch at all. When I increase the dimmer to full intensity, either on LED's in back or in front, I lose all channels and signal on front TV. Again, all other lights in trailer have no affect on TV receptions, only LED's. I love this trailer but Airstream has some splainin to do. HELP!

[Kyet]

My antenna was wired incorrectly. I had similar concerns because neighbors next to me with the same antenna would have no problem picking up channels. It went into the shop with its laundry list of items and now it works quite well.

[dasams]

Originally Posted by JeffC16

Just to be clear, the button is pushed in and the Winegard antenna is on for air/digital reception. It is NOT about being too far out in the boonies to receive or not receive reception.

The OP said that he gets 4 channels while his neighbors get 20. This happens when you are too far from the towers and only get the channels with the strongest signals. This happens to us and is a separate issue from the LEDs or whether your TV's are wired correctly.

Originally Posted by JeffC16

As I stated, when the LED's are off, I get perfect reception and many channels on the front TV only. For the rear TV, nothing works, I can''t get a single channel, no matter what I do.

Sounds like it's time for some warranty work.

[Tsunami-v2]

I have been suffering through this same issue with out 2017 28 foot FC. It makes absolutely no difference if the LED lights are on or off. I've gone so far as to pull the fuses to make sure that no 12v DC power was reaching the lights, does not make a difference. I've even had conversations with Winegard, which still did not lead to a resolution.I asked Winegard if they made a taller pedestal that the white disk antenna sits on, to get it up above the AC unit to have a clear path to a signal. They don't make one. If you have ever been to the Airstream Factory in Jackson Center, Ohio, you will not be able to get a decent OTA signal from the Columbus, Findley, Dayton, or Lima Ohio stations. I've even shown this to the service techs at AS to prove my point. There are a couple other threads on the forum about this subject. One person went so far as to mount a Winegard Razor on top of his AC shroud to get decent reception. I'd really like to have the old crank-up bat wing OTA antenna that worked great!

[wave man]

Originally Posted by uraljohn

Behind TV on the wall there should be a small white button on the plate that antenna wire goes to. Push button in to activate. I get NO channels without booster being on.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my plea uraljohn ! I had never even heard the words uttered in an Airstream context before...

/bow

[Adventure.AS]

Originally Posted by Sammy99

Yes we do. Turn off when trying cable and on with air TV

Have you selected ‘over the air’ in you TV setup and done a channel scan every time you relocate your trailer?

I find even with a change in the weather a channel scan may be necessary.

[AirstreamInc]

Hi Kyet,

We're sorry to learn about the tv reception issue you described in your 2018 30' Classic. Please call our customer service and technical support team at*1 (877) 596-6111, option 2 so we can learn more and help.

Thanks.