TV Aerial

Digimatch with an amplifier is a good all round antenna. Available at the likes of Jaycar or Dick Smiths etc.
See Digimatch Antenna

When you are away from some of the larger towns reception will not be good. For remoter areas VAST satellite TV is the only option.

Go to the Myswitch site to see where the towers are.

Thanks Rod we will check that out. Regards
Trevor & Patti

Hi Trev and Patti I have an explorer antenna which I have had for 7 years and we are very pleased with it, we get very good reception in all the outback towns that have tv.It is not as convient as the ones that stay on the roof when travelling and wind up from inside the van but we can get reception where most other antennas dont. They are priced at $ 287 the mast and bracket approx $ 105. The companies name is deep image and their head / office is in Surrey Hills Vic. I have a discovery poptop and have it permanately mounted on the front right hand side of the van but I am looking at mounting the mast on the aframe and leave the antenna on when travelling.I you are interested I will send photos. Hope you have a wonderful trip. Regards, Brian

Hi Trev and Patti I have an explorer antenna which I have had for 7 years and we are very pleased with it, we get very good reception in all the outback towns that have tv.It is not as convenient as the ones that stay on the roof when travelling and wind up from inside the van but we can get reception where most other antennas dont. They are priced at $ 287 the mast and bracket approx $ 105. The companies name is deep image and their head / office is in Surrey Hills Vic. I have a discovery poptop and have it permanately mounted on the front right hand side of the van but I am looking at mounting the mast on the aframe and leave the antenna on when travelling.I you are interested I will send photos. Hope you have a wonderful trip. They have agents in most large towns I think BFC / BCF also are agents and most jayco dealers sell them.Hope you have a wonderful trip. Regards, Brian

Unless your aerial is able to be rotated on the shaft you may not get reception in some places as the polarity is different
Eg most large towns on the east coast have horizontal polarity The aerial is flat.

Quite a lot of outback places have vertical polarityErldunda comes to mind.

Unless the aerial can get both in some way you wont get reception.

We ended up buying a satellite system as it was the only way in some places.

Thanks Tom we are looking at that idea as well but a friend took that option and it apparently cost her $2,500.00 installed and we could not afford that as we have to watch out finances .

regards
Trev & Patti

We have a Saturn antenna, looks like a basketball hav way through the hoop, and not cheap. Look them up on google or fleabay. Had a wingard with the digital expander on our previous van but as previously mentioned it only picked up one of the horizontal or vertical signal spectrums. The statue picks them both up and you don't have to rotate the antenna to improve the signal, it is Omni directional and picks up both vertical and horizontal signals.

Having said that, we are now in SteakyBay, SA, and find that the roll,out of the digital network and windown of the analog network there is no TV broadcast here at all over the analog or digital network, and before anybody responds 4 channels of digital TV on the ABC Is not Tv??. So the satellite TV option is more viable. A portable dish and Vast decoder box should only cost less tha. $600, less second hand, so have a look at that option as well...anyway..back to TV and the latest bananas in pyjamas episode...??

Hi friends
Thanks for your info. everyone has been so kind with their advice, we will now have to do a lot of research and make a final choice. My mind is spinning with all these choices. I never realised how kind folk are taking time out to help us, thanks for everything. Trev & Patti .

We have purchased a Saturn tv aerial and this was the second aerial which we found were unsatisfactory. Last week we purchased a satellite dish which folds in half from sat plus in sugar road Maroochydore qld. The owner was extremely helpful and informative. It was certainly worth buying a sat dish which is made in Australia. Hope this info is useful.

We have a T bar type aerial , very easy to put up and down, travels in its own compact bag, gets a signal if it is there to get, has traveled around Australia with us and done a few half trips around Aus. Just got to point it in the direction of the transmitting tower and you have tv. Have friends with other types that cannot get reception when we can. In the washup I guess it it what suits best in the particular circumstance...cheers I believe D.Smith has them.

Hi, we have just returned from a 9 month trip around Oz iliving in our camper trailer.
We bought a 12 volt TEAC TV /DVD player, a very cheap T shaped PVC Aerial and a extension pole like a swimming pool cleaning rod.
The cheap areal worked well and we never even had to set it up outside or above the roof of the camper!
Some caravans had amazing looking contraptions but couldn't get a signal while ours did!
When ours didn't work it was a DVD night instead!

We bought the aerial at a caravan accessories shop.

Cheers
Peter

We have a "Happy Digital 8" which fits into the hold down brackets on our poptop. It will pivot for both polarities. Good reception where there is a signal.

Trev and Patti,

Google Majestic 12 volt antenna as another option. We have a majestic 12 volt TV and Antenna and they work a treat