Philips MANT940 Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna

[Ron]

Looking for Pros & Cons on The Philips MANT-940 Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna, has anyone tried this Antenna on their Recreational Vehicle?

Following is information on the Phillips MANT-940 Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna:

The Philips MANT940 Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna incorporates a scientifically designed flat UHF panel array to improve analog and digital HDTV UHF reception. Why pay for HDTV programming that''s free over the airwaves? The MANT940 uses a low-noise, optimum gain amplifier and is weather resistant and paintable to match your interior or exterior decor.

Features

Tech Specs
Standard Warranty Lifetime Limited
Connectors F-Type
Manufacturer Philips Electronics
Package Contents MANT940 Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna
Complete mounting kit
AC Power Adapter

Additional Information Cable Type: Coaxial
Antenna Features:

UHF flat panel array
Paintable housing
Optimized for HDTV

Manufacturer Part Number MANT940
Manufacturer Website Address www.usa.philips.com
Compatibility HDTV

Gain 18 dB
Product Model MANT940
Product Name MANT940 Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna
Product Type HDTV Antenna
Cable Length 20 ft

Uhf flat panel with stacked dipole array
Optimized for hdtv & an ideal solution for urban/suburban areas
An excellent alternative to conventional outdoor antennas
Indoor/outdoor amplified
Channels: 14-69

Ron

[leslane]

I bought one of these antennas and made a test between it, a Winegard batwing, a full size house directional antenna, and hang onto your hat, a modification that I made of the top rail that goes around the back half of my 1988 Cobra Explorer Class B. The modification was as follows: I cut the aluminum rail in two half way around the perimeter, took 1 inch of the tubing out and replaced it with a piece of pvc pipe to insulate the two halves from each other. Then I drilled a hole into the top of the ends where I made the cut and inserted a self-tapping sheet metal screw, used a coax to flat cable adapter whereas the flat cable ends went under those sheet metal screws and ran a coax down to my HD TV box. This modification turned the rail on top of my van into a dipole antenna. Now the good part!! Using the guide on the HD TV adapter, I went to the signal strength option and made the tests. My dipole antenna gave me a signal strenghth of 93, which outperformed the Winegard batwing (87 on the meter) the house antenna (85 on the meter) and the Phillips MANT940 (83 on the meter). However, the Phillips antenna was much worse than that when I used the coax that came with it but changed to a heavier coax with a larger conductor and got the better results (83 on the meter as opposed to 55 with the cheesy supplied coax). My recommendation is that if your rig has the aluminum tubing rail that encircles the back part of the roof, make the above modification and forget spending the time and money for any of the antennas unless you go to a dish. Also a real plus is that this dipole isn't bothered by a little shift in direction as are most antennas.

[VernM]

None of your home-made conversions has any technical validity, but if you are happy with the results, so be it. Don't expect any one else to have the same luck. The only real thing you accomplished is the change to "larger" coax. If it is the same impedence (50 or 75 ohm) as the receiver is looking for, you inceased signal strength some what.

[Mike]

Speaking of antennas and such, has anyone successfully built a satellite dish that's small enough
to take with you inside your van, easy and quick to set up in a campsite, and doesn't use the full
sized dish that the home systems use?
I've got myself an older dish and LNB for Star Choice. As far as I know the LNB is functional,
but the dish is a circular 2 footer, too big and heavy to store easily and mount on the van and
I don't want to have to use a tripod or other "on the dirt" ground set up. I've seen the odd
DIY suggestion on the web, using much smaller dish substitutes, like trash can lids and chip
dip bowls lined with aluminum foil, but do any of them actually work, that anyone knows of?
I'd love to take one of our home satellite receivers with us next trip, but the older circular
dish just won't work for me due to size and weight.

If anyone knows of a DIY that is small. light weight and works, please let me know or send me
a link to the instructions page.
I'm willing to try just about anything once.

[VernM]

Naw, Mike, none of those things 'll work. I assume you mean TV receive dish, but it would be even harder for Internet. The precision smoothness of the surface is important to an antenna at that frequency for focus and the size is important for amount of signal captured. There were some foldable dishes once upon a time, but they suffered big time. Best alternative would be a Yagi type antenna - long shaft with dipoles or circular elements, such as the high gain satellite antennas at NASA, etc. You might look into that.

[Mike]

Hi Vern,
Yup, I meant TV receiver dish substitute.
10-4, and thanks for the input. There's a youtube vid out there showing
some guy using what looks like a stainless steel collander and an LNB
and getting what appears to be decent signal strength, but don't believe
everything you read in the papers, see on TV, or on Youtube, I guess.

[leslane]

A little more information on the MANT940 Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna: If anyone is considering mounting this antenna on any RV to leave elevated in any position while they are mobile, they will have to modify the mount as the plastic serrated mount will not take over-the-road vibration induced into it with the antenna elevated at all. I personally have seen 2 of them that were mounted on a short aluminum tubing mast that were just hanging by the coax as the mount had failed. That doesn't mean that it couldn't be kept inside and then mounted after arriving at the appointed destination but it would probably mean bringing along a ladder or climbing on the roof. As mentioned as so far as expecting anyone else to have the same "luck" with this conversion that I had, I would expect anyone who tries it (and there are 3 others within 5 miles of my place now that have made this modification to their top rail and are extremely pleased with the results) to read up on the half-wave dipole antenna, just "Google" dipole antennas. If the railing around the top of the van is near the required overall length then it will probably work just fine. Maybe thats where the "technical validity" comes in. The main reason for replacing the supplied coax is the smaller diameter conductor, in fact so small that it doesn't contact the female mating connector, which makes it unusable. So, that's my 2 cents worth. Take it as it is and don't be afraid to try it out.

[leslane]

Originally Posted by Mike

Speaking of antennas and such, has anyone successfully built a satellite dish that's small enough
to take with you inside your van, easy and quick to set up in a campsite, and doesn't use the full
sized dish that the home systems use?
I've got myself an older dish and LNB for Star Choice. As far as I know the LNB is functional,
but the dish is a circular 2 footer, too big and heavy to store easily and mount on the van and
I don't want to have to use a tripod or other "on the dirt" ground set up. I've seen the odd
DIY suggestion on the web, using much smaller dish substitutes, like trash can lids and chip
dip bowls lined with aluminum foil, but do any of them actually work, that anyone knows of?
I'd love to take one of our home satellite receivers with us next trip, but the older circular
dish just won't work for me due to size and weight.

If anyone knows of a DIY that is small. light weight and works, please let me know or send me
a link to the instructions page.
I'm willing to try just about anything once.

Hi Mike!
I was up at Camping World near Vallejo, Ca. the other day and they had a compact satellite tv antenna on display that comes with its own carrying case for $179.99. It worked just fine and the whole thing fits in its case which measures about 17 inches square by 10 inches deep. You would have to have your own receiver of course but you can get them on Ebay fairly cheap. It sure seemed to perform well and might be the answer to portable and stowable satellite reception.
Les

[Mike]

Thanks Les. I'm actually working on an alternative to a true portable dish, but since we're
being buried under a snowstorm as I type this, I won't get a chance to try my setup until we thaw!!!
I'm trying to mount the 2 footer on the rear of my van, using the trailer hitch. Standby!!! If successful,
pics and info to follow.

So, Camping World carries a smallish portable? Do you know if it can use either linear or circular
wave LNBs? I've been doing a bit of surfing the subject, and it appears that the receiver for my
service (Shaw Direct, formerly Star Choice) requires a linear wave LNB. The more common
type is circular wave LNB which is what BellXVu, Dish Network, and DirectTV all use. I see they have
a Winegard Star Choice compatible roof mounted auto-dish system for around US$2000 which
is a bit too much money right now.
I'm also looking at a place called Satellite Dish in Pompano, which might have an answer for me,
but I can't find an email addy for them to ask them my questions.

Anyway, stay tuned for the results of my low budget traveling satellite adventure.

[leslane]

Hi Mike!
Try Googling Winegard MP1 Carryout Manual Portable Satelite TV antenna #49428. I was able to find some infomation and it says that this unit is compatible with DirectTV (standard only), DISH Network and Bell TV (standard and HD). Thats about all I could find but in watching it at Camping World, it was as good as what I have at home, which is DISh Network, also on my class A rig.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by leslane

Hi Mike!
Try Googling Winegard MP1 Carryout Manual Portable Satelite TV antenna #49428. I was able to find some infomation and it says that this unit is compatible with DirectTV (standard only), DISH Network and Bell TV (standard and HD). Thats about all I could find but in watching it at Camping World, it was as good as what I have at home, which is DISh Network, also on my class A rig.

Hey Les,
The compatibility issue is why I can't use it, as I have Star Choice, the "black sheep" of
satellite receivers, I guess. SC uses linear wave technology when transmitting signal, and the
other 3 (DN, DTV, and BEV) use circular. So I need a dish and Low Noise Block which is FSS and
linear wave compatible. I guess the portable dish manufacturers are mostly folks who use DN and
DTV, so they're mostly desgined for those service providers. There are one or two systems that
work for my receiver, but they're too pricey for my needs right now.
So, I can't use it, and I don't want to spend $2-3K on a Motosat or Winegard automatic system at
this time.
We may be off on a road trip in the next few weeks, so once I get to somewhere where it isn't
snowing or freezing, I'll try setting up my "portable" system, and I'll see if/how it works.

Thanks for looking into it, though.
Mike.