Seawatch antenna

J

jlsparks

New member
Has anyone use a seawatch antenna on there boat? Need something to keep the wife on the boat a few days longer and watch the news.

Jim
 
Shakespeare currently makes 3 versions of the Sea Watch TV antenna: 2020, 2025 and 2030. The difference is diameter and type of amplification. Generally these antennas work well with local TV signals. The circular type of antennas may give some ghosts images where there are areas where buildings or mountains may give secondary images. In this case, a more directional antenna may work better.

I have the 2020 antenna and a set of dipoles (rabbit ears). They work fine with local stations.
 
I hope Roger on Dreamer jumps in with his 2 cents because Janet told me their antenna (I forget type) does not work very well at all -- but this is with a converter to use a PC as a TV. Some of their problems may be due to that piece of hardware.

Warren
 
I've got the WinTV-HVR 950 converter I use with my PC. I've been content with it's reception but I haven't been in remote areas with it. The included antenna that comes with it is a temporary mount thing so I may try one of the Seawatch antennas with it for a little more trouble free setup.
 
Warren,

We indeed have a Win TV PVR and a Shakespear 2025 antenna. From Bell Harbor (downtown Seattle) to the San Juans and beyond, it's totally useless!

It's all coming off the boat and onto e-Bay soon. Can't justify the big bucks for a satelite receiver so we'll depend on the Internet for news and CDs for music.

 
I know this has come up in other forums, but we have been very happy with our Slingbox arrangement teathering it to my Verizon Blackberry. You watch all the channels from home on your laptop. You have some limitations battery wise that could be easily resolved with a decent air card, but I don't want to watch hours at a time anyway. It's surprisingly inexpensive and works like a charm for me. I don't have any experience in the PNW, so have no idea about internet availability in the San Juans, but it sure works well down here in Texas.
 
How will all these units be affected by the change over to all digital transmission??
Rabbitt ears will no longer work.

Merv
 
Grumpy":2376n7j3 said:
How will all these units be affected by the change over to all digital transmission??
Rabbitt ears will no longer work.

Merv
Click to expand...

Slingbox will work fine as long as your home source is either on cable or you have a digital equipped DVR/DVD or "converter" at home and a broadband internet connection at home and on your laptop. I use mine via my cell phone as well and fortunately my cell is charged by the same USB connection to the laptop. Slingboxes can be had for as little as $69 occasionally on WOOT and they're all over Ebay.

You can also use a converter on your C-Dory TV system of choice but you'll need a UHF antenna for now. Digital signals are so different. Either you have a superb signal or you don't. No ghosts, static, snow ever.

Don
 
I have the SeaWatch 2025 and a Digital to Analog converter box that runs off 12VDC. An advantage of the Sea Watch 2025 is the variable gain amplifier and hook ups to cable built into the amplifier box. With the Amplifier off, the cable that I have wired into my CD 22 from the cockpit is automatically bypassed to the TV. The converter box also supports both analog and digital tv but that will soon be a moot point since most stations will go to digital only in Feb 09.

I concur with Dr Bob's general observations regarding local stations. If I am at home at our marina near Huntsville, Al, I get excellent reception. In more remote areas of the Tennessee River (Like Scottsboro: Goosepond Marina), the antenna only gets 4 or 5 stations because of the distance to tv towers and the mountains. Fortunately, at Goosepond, this is of little consequence since they have cable and wireless. Last weekend, I discovered that their service provider supports ESPN360.com and was able to get a bunch of college games on my laptop so I was watching 2 games at once much of the time.
:roll:
 
Back
Top