Recently sent an enquiry to Winegard in America asking why they don't have a Wingman designed for Australia. The reply was they do and guess what they are distributing ( it appears ) the US model. RV-WING is the US model and NZ- WING is for OZ. Australian channel coverage 2-69 US coverage 2-51 and blocks out channels above. Fortunatelly for myself I kept a box someone in our park threw out and the serial bar code shows RV- WING. So ask befor purchasing, Winegard representative who kindly reported to me the Australian version was available has been helpful as their product is a quality one and with the digital situation upon us, can only counter the negative approach to Winegard and it's effectiveness.
I adjust my Wineguard to get vertically oriented signals by withdrawing one of the pins from the assembly & once elevated bumping the dipole into a vertical orientation.
A bit of a bugger but works for me & only takes a minute or so.
IMO all CV TV antenas are a compromise .. choose one that is best for where you travel. Lots of good articles on the subject are available on the net.
If you want PM me & I'll direct you where you can get details of all Aussie TV frequencies.digital/analogue & orientation.
The way i see it is the wingman is designed as an addition not only to improve uhf signal strength but also to accept digital signals, wether you like it or not Paul, times are a changing. Those vertical orientation areas are disappearig fast and many of them were dual reception areas anyway. As most newish caravans have Winegard it is not viable to throw them away but take the advantage and upgrade to the Australian Wingman and hopefully as the digital system is wound out we will never have to debate this subject again. The days of coat hangers are over.
I'd never heard of these before this thread, it looks interesting. From the pictures I have found it seems to attach to the side of the existing antenna, does this cause any issues when winding the antenna down? Does it still wind down as flat as before, or does it sit higher? How much clearance is required next to the wound down antenna?
Thanks for the heads up on this ... I'll check them out ..
ps .. the video is good .. Had a look at another that showed a DIY for improving wifi reception. Interesting but myToshiba laptop has the receiver built in ..
The way i see it is the wingman is designed as an addition not only to improve uhf signal strength but also to accept digital signals, wether you like it or not Paul, times are a changing. Those vertical orientation areas are disappearig fast and many of them were dual reception areas anyway.
There are now substantially more television transmitters transmitting in vertical on digital than analogue. Vertical orientation is far from dissapearing and approximately 50% of transmitters are now vertical on digital which is a substantial increase in number.
There has never ever been a TV transmitter in Australia that "were dual reception areas anyway." There are approx 8 locations in Australia that have cross polarisation. This is where some channels are on VHF in horizontal and some channels on UHF in vertical or vica versa. Wish people would not reply to posts with completely incorrect information.
Best TV aerial is Digimatch Explorer which will do horizontal and vertical and cross polarisation. Match Digimatch Explorer to wide band Kingray amp and you have the best and cheapest TV aerial system.
-- Edited by Paul-NSW on Monday 26th of July 2010 06:14:34 PM
If you are interested in the facts .. Have a look at the acma.gov.au site.
The publication 'Stations Book Electronic' contains all the facts on TV and radio transmitters, including Location/Analogue/Digital/ Polarisation. Read the introductory notes before looking at the lists so that you understand the terms/symbols.
I always have the latest copy with me so that I know where the transmitters are, how many, polarisation etc.
Paul-NSW wrote:Winegard useless 50% of Aus cannot receive vertical transmissions
That is completely incorrect (regarding the useless bit.) I would agree with you if TV antennas had the cross polar discrimination of the large parabolic antennas (30 dB or more.) Very few TV antennas have a cross polar discrimination of more than 6 dB, even quality yagi antennas used on the UHF band are only about 10 dB.
What this means is that at the outer limits of a stations coverage you could be in a little trouble getting a good picture. When you are closer to the transmitter you will not notice any difference.
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
Paul-NSW wrote:There are now substantially more television transmitters transmitting in vertical on digital than analogue. Vertical orientation is far from dissapearing and approximately 50% of transmitters are now vertical on digital which is a substantial increase in number.
What is your reference to show this happening? There are very few new TV transmitters installed this century. As far as I know (and this was stated policy) all digital replacements for the old analogue were to be on adjacent channels and using the same transmitting antennas. (The exception was Band 1 & 2 transmitter. Their replacements were to be located amongst the existing Band 3 or UHF chanels.)
Have the ACMA gone against previous policy and I am out of touch? Most of the verticaly polarised transmitters were the self help ones that are not being replaced.
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
Since purchasing a digital TV (last year) for the van I have travelled to western Victoria, Gladstone (Qld) and to North Queensland (separate trip) where I'm currently in Atherton. On only one occasion can I recall a location where the digital channels were vertically polarised. A couple of times the VHF (analogue) transmissions were vertical and the UHF (analogue and digital) were horizontal.
PS: (reason for edit) despite my comments above a quick perusal of the ACMA list does indicate that vertical polarisation is still being used extensively so maybe some other places were V pol but it didn't matter.
That said, there seems to be plenty of happy Winegard Wingman owners out there.
-- Edited by jimricho on Sunday 1st of August 2010 08:05:35 AM
Lets wrap up this subject now and the alert was only to indicate that if you purchase a wingman, try or make sure it is the one made for Australia, because even the distributor at the Adelaide show was not aware. NZ WIng not RV Wing. Great debate, bye.
We had an AntennaTek (Winegard copy) on our Jayco van when we bought it and have changed it to the latest Winegard, we did heaps and heaps of research before deciding on this option. We also contacted Winegard USA and found out we need the NZ attachment and have tried and tried to find one in South Australia to no avail, even where we bought the new Winegard they know nothing about the NZ only the RV which is what they sell. If anyone can please tell me where on earth I can purchase this elusive wingman, I would be most grateful. I realise this thread has been open for a while now, but would appreciate any help you can give me. Many thanks
Dean
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Don't worry, be happy, life is too short to live any other way.
Thanks Peter, that is exactly what I did, got onto their website, rang them and ordered the NZ Wingman through them, not a problem. Pity that when you ask the question from some suppliers it is just too hard for them to follow things up, my reply from my dealer was "Oh they may sell them but we sell the RV's they work just fine, so what's the problem?" Obviously I am now looking for a new caravan parts shop!!! Thanks for taking the time to answer me......Dean
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Don't worry, be happy, life is too short to live any other way.
Travellinman wrote:Pity that when you ask the question from some suppliers it is just too hard for them to follow things up, my reply from my dealer was "Oh they may sell them but we sell the RV's they work just fine, so what's the problem?"
I don't think it's too hard for them. It's just that they have old stock to unload first.
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
Just to add my 2 bob's worth. I have a winegard went on hollie, yep vetical reception, nice black screen. Now home did some research, wingman ???? as stated there is no physical connection to the antena, also there is no metion of being able to pick-up vertical reception ??? I also found a site which makes "vertical receivers" for the wingard $78 this is the site http://users.vic.chariot.net.au/~clubasys/http:/tv%20antenna/tv_antenna.htm looks like it could work at least it has a physical link to the antena.
I'm going to get one will give a report on how it all goes.
Any recommendations for a better antenna???
, nice black screen. Now home did some research
