We use a Winegard with electric booster no problem all over Australia. Once in Derby WA we were the only one's in the caravan park that couldn't watch TV - It was a large gum tree between us and local transmitter responsible. moved to other side of Caravan park all OK.

I have one of those latest Wingard antennae on my van as it came with it.

On my previous van I used a small sized Phased Array type antenna on a pole from the drawbar. I used a standard signal booster and I feel that personally the old phased array worked better and was easier to tune in.

I am fortunate enough to have satellite tv that will provide me with the Vast service so I very rarely even try to use the terrestrial service.
I should also add that the Wingard is very floppy if raised during a day of strong winds.

Local news is good at times Peter but my Sat dish is auto so no time to set it up at all.
In most areas the ABC is generally the easiest to find and tune on the terrestrial service and I found that some of the newer digital channels are the most difficult to find.
The last time I was using the Wingard I could get either the 7 digitals or the 10 digitals but not without having different positions on the Wingard for each result. Even then those digital stations were a patchy reception and were dependent on the weather. At the time I was reasonably close to the tower according to the TV app. on my phone.

Have a bit of a tale here - hope I am keeping OT with it.
So being a miser we had an antenna we used in a far north town to receive signal from local transmitter taking in satellite signals and re sending locally.

Come time to buy a van I set up our own TV & radio etc. TV worked well from the antenna, radio was placed under the solar controller unit (HA ha de ha ha - not a smart move) and got lousy reception.

Just finished resetting stuff and took the antenna to bits and cleaned every wire and joint and put a splitter into the antenna co-axial line and now we get FM radio (with it still under the solar controller) off the same antenna at the same time we can watch TV (just why we would want to do that who knows) but the point is to have clean elements.

In the whole process I lost all reception and actually thought the set up was totalled, however I found just ONE SINGLE wire of the woven outer layer of wires of the coax was somehow caught in the wrong spot. When that was tidied up - whammo! decent reception on free to air TV.

I am happy. Hope the pic of the antenna shows!

Worth noting that the plural of antenna is antennae. Cheers

Whatever you buy ensure that if it has an inbuilt amplifier, ensure it is of good quality & complies with Australian standards.

It was no fun when one worked for Telstra & trying to find a spurious transmitter that has blocked a mobiles base station! Of course people were upset that they couldn't use their phones. This happened many times at Karumba & with the choice system that the techs worked under to get their work, it was almost impossible to locate the "culprit". Mostly the faults were intermittent & generally if the fault cleared, they were written off to "Caravans & TV amplifiers".
I wonder whether PeterD had these problems in his area.

Mike Harding wrote:

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yobarr wrote:

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Worth noting that the plural of antenna is antennae.

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Only if we're talking about insects.

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   Hi Mike....what you say is indeed true in the USA,but it is generally ccepted in Australia,NZ and Britain that the correct term is antennae. The fact that antennas is creeping into common use is that that term is regularly used by the same sorts of people who use literary gems such as  The  reason why is because and We redid it again . Cheers

-- Edited by yobarr on Saturday 1st of December 2018 08:23:07 AM

Hi 

WE have an antenna that we use generally for tv and have for some years. The second similar one actually. It is a phased array with 4 elements that is twice the size of the one shown. I purchased this one from Jaycar and then fitted a booster to it and a long cable. (because I could not quickly find one that had the booster) It works well and the booster power unit plugs into the 12v with the TV power cord. Low tech stuff to do.

In use if you are in town or nearby you can often just hang the aerial on the fence or the van. If you can see the broadcast antenna then I just sit it on the ground against the MH or on the windscreen. Other times we have a 4M windsurfer mast which is very light and was cut to just fit in along the top of the cupboards. That will bring in a signal usually if freecamping with a bit of playing. If not we listen to the radio. When we are looking for a spot to stop I usually look at the houses to see where their aerials are pointed and the polarity of the antennas. That is if they are normal or on their side. This is the best way to get an idea where to point and how to set the antenna on the mast. 

A bit of playing around but it keeps me amused according to SHMBO. The worst thing is having to retune the digital TV every change of area. It was easier with a manual tuner !!

Jaahn  

I lived in the UK for a long time and worked there in electronics for many years and never heard anyone refer to the plural or aerials as antennae.

My Concise Oxford English Dictionary says:

antenna
n    noun (plural antennae )
1    Zoology a long, thin sensory appendage found in pairs on the heads of insects and some other arthropods.
2    (plural also antennas) chiefly North American or technical an aerial.
3    (antennae) the faculty of instinctively detecting and interpreting subtle signs: his political antennae remain as sharp as ever.

Note definition 2.

And John; I'll have you know that this is a serious and critical subject! :)