Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Radio & Television

My first T@B came with a car stereo and 2 rear speakers, which was great but a bit more sound than I really wanted when camping. It also took up more room. So this time a round, I chose this small weather/fm/am/TV band radio. It even comes with a built-in hand crank should it's internal batteries go dead.


Rather than haul a heavy TV around, my laptop does double duty. I bought a Hauppauge HDTV tuner on a small USB stick that turned my laptop into an HDTV for less than $100! To get the best reception possible, I decided on an outdoor antenna that many on the T@B forum had recommended-- the Wingard Hideaway.

I didn't want to mount it permanently to the side of the T@B (drill holes in my T@B? no way!), so I adopted one of the other forum member's idea of using heavy-duty suction cups from Harbor Freight and then just attaching the antenna to the suction cups via small bungee cords. The coax cable attaches to the bottom of the Hideaway and then just feeds right through the window to my laptop sitting on the counter.

When ready to break camp, I just pull down the Hideaway (it works like an umbrella), remove the suction cups, and then store it on the floor of the T@B (it fits perfectly).



2 comments:

Richard said...

How is your tv reception on it, other than cloudy days bad storms etc? is there a sign up service for it?

Lynne (WinnieViews) said...

It does fine up to about 40 miles away from TV station tranmitters. The amplified Winegard antennas do a bit better, but they require power. There is no service to sign-up for, it's simply for Over-the-Air (free) digital HDTV.