TCL Television/Winegard Air260+ does not receive over the air TV channels

[Jimmer]

I have a 2021 Reflection 315RLTS with a Winegard AIR360+ antenna. The TV is a TCL 40S325, manufactured July 2020. I've been impressed with the over-the-air TV reception that I have gotten over the last 10 months. However, I no longer receive any TV stations (location John Pennekamp State Park on Key Largo).

I have done the following:
(1) pulled the TV amplifier cover plate from behind the TV and checked/tightened all coaxial connections.
(2) the red light on the TV amplifier is turned on.
(3) tried turning on/off the tv amplifier to "reboot" it.
(3) checked the coax connections on the back of the Nautilus panel (does not seem relevant, but all looked OK).
(4) Did a power reset from the TV menu
(5) Unplugged the TV for an extended period
(6) replaced the coax cable from the amplifier to the back of the TV
(7) bought a new generic amplified antenna from Home Depot
(8) using the TV, scanned for channels many times, with no channels ever being found.
(9) I don't have the ability to check cable tv because no park I'm staying at has cable TV

Because the TV connected to the new antenna did not pick up any over-the-air channels, I've concluded the following:

(1) either there is zero over-the-air TV reception on Key Largo, or
(2) the TV tuner is not working (I can get Netflix, etc. using the ROKU aspect of the TV).

From my Internet research, Key Largo does get reasonable TV reception from Miami. I'm 60 miles from Miami (and Florida is very flat with no mountains between Miami and Key Largo).

It seems like others with TCL TVs have this same issue of suddenly losing the ability to receive over-the-air TV channels:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/questio...7-7fdcde2af542
https://www.reddit.com/r/Roku/commen...hannels_found/
https://community.roku.com/t5/Discus...el/td-p/629067

I guess I'll call Grand Design and see if the TV is covered under my 1 year warranty.

[AZMike]

I solved all of my TCL/Roku problems by throwing it into a dumpster and buying a Samsung.

[Jkwilson]

Use an app or the locator at https://www.antennasdirect.com/transmitter-locator.html

For your zip code, there are a couple of low power stations 25 miles away. The rest are Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. 55 miles. Not ideal for an omnidirectional antenna 15ft off the ground. If there is anything taller than your antenna to the north, you go from bad to worse. You might try directly entering 4.1, 6.1, 7.1 and 10.1 rather than scanning. Those are likely the strongest signals.

Omni antennas are just a bad design choice for RVs.

[Jimmer]

Use an app or the locator at https://www.antennasdirect.com/transmitter-locator.html

For your zip code, there are a couple of low power stations 25 miles away. The rest are Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. 55 miles. Not ideal for an omnidirectional antenna 15ft off the ground. If there is anything taller than your antenna to the north, you go from bad to worse. You might try directly entering 4.1, 6.1, 7.1 and 10.1 rather than scanning. Those are likely the strongest signals.

Omni antennas are just a bad design choice for RVs.

John, Thanks for your helpful response. Maybe Key Largo is too far from Miami to get a single TV station?? I don't see that the Roku TV lets me directly enter a channel, instead of doing the automatic scanning. I guess I'll have to wait 2 weeks until I'm out of the Keys to be sure that something is really wrong.

[Jkwilson]

John, Thanks for your helpful response. Maybe Key Largo is too far from Miami to get a single TV station?? I don't see that the Roku TV lets me directly enter a channel, instead of doing the automatic scanning. I guess I'll have to wait 2 weeks until I'm out of the Keys to be sure that something is really wrong.

You MIGHT be able to do it on a tv or roku app

[KrustyKush]

With the TCL in our 2022 500MK, the only time we can get anything over the air via the roof-top omni-directional antenna is if we're parked in a metropolitan area. A city, with strong broadcast stations. We live just 70 miles east of the LA coast and cannot receive a single LA station, not even a hint of an LA station. All we can get here at the house over the air are tiny foreign language local stations. This makes me think that the roof-top antenna is pretty useless in a fringe area. That's why we bought a Dish mobile set-up. This provides very high quality television equivalent to our Dish at home. It is very much better than any of the spongy cable provided at any rv park we've been to.

The main drawback to the dish mobile set up is that if there are trees blocking your view of the southern sky, you may not be able to get a signal. However, most of the time we are able to get a good signal. It is very rare that we can't get a signal for the Dish receiver due to ground clutter. I don't even bother trying to get anything from the OTA channel, or use the rv park provided cable. The Dish is just a routine part of my set-up, 'cause we can't live without TV...

[Jlawles2]

You might try pulling the white cap and if a ceiling light is near that also to see if the coax to the roof has worked itself loose. Also check to see if the booster is pushing 12v back up to the antenna, provide you are comfortable and understand electricity.

[Jimmer]

You might try pulling the white cap and if a ceiling light is near that also to see if the coax to the roof has worked itself loose. Also check to see if the booster is pushing 12v back up to the antenna, provide you are comfortable and understand electricity.

I pulled a ceiling light right next to the white cap. Unfortunately, I could not reach the coax antenna to the AIR360+ antenna.

But the more I think about it, (and see comments like the post from KrustyKush, it could be that the 60 or 70 miles I'm from Miami is just too far for the Antenna to pick up. I'll know in 2 weeks when I'm back at Peace River Campground in Wauchula FL. I was able to pick up a ton of station there from both Fort Myers and Tampa/St. Pete.

[RJAPCOK]

I have pretty much that same TV and Antenna (I have the Air 360) and what I have found is that I cannot pull in stations that are more than about 30 miles away. (I don't know exact distance to the transmitter) At the local campground where we usually camp I get 4 channels all from the same transmitter location. Sometimes we camp at another campground 7 miles north and I don't get any of those same channels. At that campground, If I get any channels at all, they are from a different transmitter. However, that campground is down in a hole so to speak and that probably affects reception as much as anything.

Just another thought... at both of those campgrounds, I am located inside of a triangle formed by three major cities. The cities are within 65 - 90 miles of my location and all have multiple TV stations. I cannot receive any of those TV stations at either campground. The only stations I get are coming from a repeater transmitter 30 miles or less away from my campsite.

I have always just accepted this as "normal".

I hope this helps.

Bob

[glowblue]

I will offer my experience for comparison. I have a very similar set up in my 2022 315RLTS. I normally get great reception and most campgrounds (I'm actually impressed with it). However, I've been located recently in Western NC in a valley and get zero channels. I agree with RJAPCOK - I think the antenna has limited range of picking up channels from far away. I never suspected the fact that the TV itself could be bad...but AZMike probably has the best solution...the TCL/Roku combo TVs are junk. I installed a non-Smart TV in the bedroom and just use my Amazon FireStick.

[ThePowells]

glowblue I'm shocked! I have always been under the impression that if you can't get anything else, you are going to get at least 5 UNC / PBS channels.

[glowblue]

glowblue I'm shocked! I have always been under the impression that if you can't get anything else, you are going to get at least 5 UNC / PBS channels.

Funny you say that. I "cut the cord" about a decade ago, and used to live in Southwest Virginia in the Blue Ridge mountains. I probably have tried a dozen different TV antennas over the years - all types from cheap ones to $300 outdoor "fancy" antennas. The best one that worked? A $15 "flat" antenna from Amazon taped to a wall in my upstairs office. I could get about 30+ channels but I never could get the local PBS station...not once. I figured their tower was just too under-powered. I had an "HDHomeRun" setup that streamed the antenna signal over my WiFi network which worked fantastic, I could get live OTA TV on any TV from one single antenna. I had this setup for years and worked awesome.

[Jimmer]

The situation has been resolved. There are not TV station transmitters in the Keys of Florida. The closest TV transmitters are in Miami which is about 60 miles from Key Largo. Nothing wrong with my antenna/RV. The Miami TV transmitters are too far from Key Largo (or any of the other keys) to pick up any stations. I spoke to a camp host at John Pennekamp who has a 20 foot mast with a directional antenna, and he says that 50% of the time, he can't get any channels. We have not chance with the Winegard antenna. I'm back in Wauchula (central Florida) and can pick up 30+ stations with the Winegard.