Some people like to completely disconnect from technology when they camp. I am not one of those people. My van doesn’t have all the amenities of home, but it’s a far cry from roughing it. One of the things I take with me when I travel is a small flatscreen television. People my age and older remember back when you could turn on a television and (sometimes with a little adjusting of the antenna) magically watch channels ABC, NBC, and CBS for free. As you probably know, those broadcasts were analog and went away.
But — and this is something I didn’t know for many years — broadcast television didn’t completely go away. Those same broadcasts exist today but in digital format, and all you need to receive them is a digital television antenna, an inexpensive device that connects to any television. It sounds like a gimmick, but it’s not. With a digital TV antenna, you can once again receive all those same channels (ABC, NBC, and CBS), and many more, complete for free.
I recently picked up my third digital TV antenna (more on that in a moment), this one by Antemast, for installing in my van. I’ll be completely transparent — there are a lot of these units on Amazon and I think many of them are identical units being rebranded. I don’t have any particular affinity to this specific brand; that being said, I do own it and have used it and can vouch for it. While it’s not any better than some of the other ones I own, it’s certainly not any worse.
These digital antennas require two connections. First, you’ll need to screw it in to your television’s coax connection (that’s the old “cable connection”). They also need power, and most of these units (including this one) have a USB cable attached. If your television has a spare USB port you’re not using, you can power it directly from your television. If not, you’ll need a USB wall wart.
Once everything is connected, you’ll need to turn your television on, find the “tuner” section somewhere in the menu, and scan for channels. This is a long and boring process in which the television and antenna run through every single frequency in search of channels it can pick up. The number of channels this or any antenna will receive depends on many factors, the main one being antenna placement. If you were planning on hanging the antenna on the back of your television, don’t expect to get many channels (tried it). The manual suggests placing it “away from metal” which, inside a van, is easier said than done. While some of these devices are advertised as indoor units, the Antemast includes an indoor/outdoor antenna. The antenna is big and rectangular and not flat on the back, which can make mounting it a bit of a challenge. (I ultimately plan to grind down the backside and use superglue to attach magnets to the device, an approach that will surely void the warranty.) In general, the higher and closer to a window you can mount the antenna, the better it will perform.
The Antemast claims to be able to pick up channels from up to 1,100 miles away, which is physically and technologically impossible. 1,100 miles is roughly the distance between Austin, Texas and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many factors, including the strength of these broadcast and curvature of the earth, prevent broadcasts from traveling that far. Most websites claim a reasonable expectation is 50 miles for an indoor antenna and twice that for an outdoor one. These signals travel in a straight line and there are many things (like mountains) that can affect your reception. The Antemast receiver includes a “power boost” switch that claims to boost your antenna’s reception, but works a bit like black magic. According to the manual, turning on the boost will make weaker signals stronger, but disrupt signals that were already strong enough. Additionally, turning on the boost uses a bit more electricity. I’ve tried the switch in both positions and never seen much of a difference, but your mileage may vary.
One thing I should mention is that once a scan is performed, those channels are typically remembered by your television. When using a digital TV antenna, multiple scans are not really necessary. However, in a mobile van, you’ll need to perform another scan any time you move to a new viewing area. You wouldn’t need to rescan when moving around the same city most likely, but if when camping at a new campsite, you’ll need to rerun the scan to find broadcast signals in that location.
So, how did the Antemast digital TV antenna perform in my van? I performed two separate tests on a Sunday evening. On the first test, I placed the antenna in the worst spot I could think of, sitting on my desk inside the van — close the the metal wall, and far from a window. After the scan completed I was able to pick up 63 channels, the first of which was NBC which was showing Sunday Night Football. The HD signal was crystal clear and came in perfectly. For my next test I opened the rear door of my van, literally threw the antenna up on the roof of the van, and rescanned for channels. This time I received almost 90, a significant increase by simply relocating the antenna.
The channels you will receive are not the same as you might get through cable or DirecTV. For example, the numbering is a bit strange. For me, NBC comes through as channel 4.1, but I also get channels 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4, which are alternative NBC transmissions. One of those shows local news on a loop, while another shows reruns of old NBC shows. Of the 90 channels my antenna picked up, I’d say somewhere around one half were variations of the Home Shopping Network, religious programming, or channels broadcasting in Spanish, which instantly turns 90 channels into 45 watchable ones. That being said, those remaining channels were all showing television shows and movies. While flipping channels I watched old game shows, some old westerns, local news, and live sports. All for free!
The availability and format of a channel guide depends on your television and not the antenna. The television in my van does not have a channel guide available, but does show broadcast information like the name, length, and a brief description of the current program. The same antenna, when connected to the television in my workshop, shows s cable-like display where I can browse through the list of channels and see what’s on, just like regular cable. Remember when I said I owned multiple digital TV antenna? I have one in my workshop, one in a spare bedroom, and a third one in my van. All of them perform similar.
So, what the final verdict on this thing? The reality is, there are a ton of ways to consume content these days. In my van I can watch movies on my phone. I can stream content to my television through my phone, or tether my television to my phone and stream content that way. The thing is, all of these solutions depend on using my phone’s WiFi. My phone’s data plan limits the amount of streaming I can do each month, and all of those solutions depend on me having a good WiFi signal. This antenna does something different — it literally plucks digital television signals out of the sky and allows me to watch them on my television — no data service required. It’s a nice alternative that requires a one time purchase and is free to use after that, which I like. If you’ve ever fiddled around trying to connect WiFi or getting two devices to talk to one another, using a digital TV antenna is a much simpler experience that is more like watching cable television in your home.
Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/498awO1