BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention. The present invention relates to aerodynamic very high frequency/ultra high frequency (VHF/UHF) television antennas and, in particular, to such antennas having UHF parasitic elements to boost reception of high definition television broadcast signals.

Discussion of the Background. Conventional mobile VHF/UHF television antennas exist for use on vehicles such as recreational vehicles (RVs) and for residential use. The popular SENSAR television antenna, manufactured by Winegard

Co., provides VHF/UHF television reception when the RV is parked. In use, the SENSAR mobile television antenna which is mounted on the roof is raised, rotated and pointed to a desired TV station by an operator inside the parked RV to target incoming television signals. When not in use, as when the RV is travelling, the SENSAR antenna is stowed on the roof, is aerodynamic, and is stabilized against the roof to minimize vibration. Variations of the SENSAR antenna are shown in U.S. patent numbers D500.496 S; 5,262,793 and 7,358,909.

High Definition Television (HDTV) signals are principally broadcast in the high VHF and UHF bands with some changes. The high VHF band remains at 174 to 216 MHz. The UHF band has changed to 470 to 698 MHz which is narrower than before. Most HDTV channels are carried in the UHF band.

A need exists to easily adapt UHF/VHF television antennas currently in use on roofs of vehicles or in residences by adding UHF parasitic antenna elements to boost HDTV UHF reception. A need further exists to mount the UHF parasitic element without drilling additional holes in the current UHF/VHF television antenna.

A further need exists to provide an aftermarket add-on kit to existing mobile television antennas that can be easily installed. Another need exists to provide a universal aftermarket add-on kit that retrofits different types and/or models of UHF/VHF television antennas.

An additional need exists to improve UHF/VHF television reception by adding integral UHF parasitic antenna elements to boost HDTV UHF reception for use on roofs of vehicles or in residences.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method for retrofitting the universal aftermarket UHF parasitic antenna kit to operate with the mobile television antenna meets the aforesaid needs. The operator removes existing resilient feet from foot holes in the bottom of the mobile television antenna. Rivet holes in the engagement surface of the base of the UHF parasitic antenna are then aligned over the foot holes in the bottom of the mobile television antenna. Rivets are then pushed-in by the operator into the aligned rivet and foot holes to attach the base of the UHF parasitic antenna to the mobile television antenna. The combined assembly is ready for operation.

An aftermarket UHF parasitic antenna kit for easily retrofitting to different types of mobile television antennas meets the aforesaid needs. The aftermarket kit includes: a base having an engagement surface and an extending boom portion; rivet holes in the engagement surface that correspond in size and location to a corresponding number of existing foot holes in the bottom of the mobile television antenna; push rivets that engage the rivet and bottom holes to hold the base to the bottom of the mobile television antenna. At least one UHF parasitic antenna element is connected to the boom portion for boosting reception of UHF broadcast signals by the mobile television antenna.

The aftermarket kit is universal in that the base portion has formed holes corresponding in size and location to bottom hole patterns of different types and/or models of mobile television antennas. The bottom hole patterns of each type corresponding to the pattern of holes receiving resilient feet.

In another embodiment, a mobile television antenna is disclosed having an antenna element outwardly extending from opposing ends of a housing. An UHF digital booster extends perpendicularly from one side of the housing between the opposing ends carrying the antenna element. At least one UHF parasitic antenna element is connected on a boom which is integrally connected to the mobile television antenna housing. The -A- ultra high frequency parasitic antenna element is heid in a plane near the plane in which the antenna element is held by the housing.

The summary set forth above does not limit the teachings of the invention especially as to variations and other embodiments of the invention as more fuily set out the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figures 1 and 1a are side elevation views of a PRIOR ART mobile television antenna.

Figure 2 is a bottom elevation view of the PRIOR ART mobile television antenna of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the mobile television antenna of Figures 1 and 2 retrofitted with the aftermarket UHF parasitic antenna of the invention.

Figure 3a is an exploded view of Figure 3. Figure 4 is a bottom perspective view of the Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a top view of the base of the aftermarket UHF parasitic antenna of the invention.

Figure 6 is a side view of the base of the aftermarket UHF parasitic antenna of the invention. Figure 7 is a view of the boom end of the base of the aftermarket UHF parasitic antenna of the invention.

Figure 8 is a view of the open end of the base of the aftermarket UHF parasitic antenna of the invention.

Figures 9a, 9b, and 9c are views of the push rivet. Figure 10 is a view of the base resilient foot.

Figures 11 a, 11 b, and 11c are views of a single parasitic UHF antenna element.

Figures 12a, 12b, and 12c are views of a double parasitic UHF antenna element. Figures 13a and 13b illustrate the stowing of the combined mobile television antenna and UHF parasitic antenna.

Figure 14 sets forth a method of installing the universal aftermarket kit to the mobile television antenna.

Figure 15 is a perspective view of the mobile television antenna having an integrated UHF parasitic antenna of the invention. Figure 16 is a side planar view of the mobile television antenna of Figure 15.

Figure 17 is a section view 17-17 through Figure 16.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In Figures 1 and 2, the prior art conventional SENSAR mobile television antenna 1 is shown to have a iow profile, aerodynamic housing 100 with outwardly extending driven antenna elements 110. Three resiiient base feet 120 such as "rubber" feet are inserted into the bottom 130 of the housing 1 and are used for stowing the mobile television antenna 1 on the roof of a vehicle such as a recreational vehicle. The term "rubber" is commonly used even though other materials such as neoprene are actually used. A block 140 connects the housing 100 to a support boom, not shown. U.S. Patent No. 5,262,793, incorporated in its entirety herein by reference, discloses similar structure and different variations for the shape of the housing 100 and the number of resilient base feet 120 used for stowing the mobiie television antenna 1 against the roof of a vehicle.

In Figures 3, 3a and 4, the aftermarket UHF parasitic antenna retrofit kit 300 of the invention is shown attached to the mobile television antenna 1. Figure 3a is an exploded view of the attachment. The antenna retrofit kit 300 includes a molded plastic base 2 having an extending boom portion 2a, push rivets 3, resiiient base feet 4, single UHF elements 5, double UHF elements 6 and rivets 7. As shown, base 2 is mounted to the bottom 130 of the mobile television antenna 1 with the UHF parasitic elements 5 and 6 on boom 2a pointing is a direction 310 away from block 140. The direction 310 with the antenna in use is towards the target broadcast television antenna or source of signal. The attached base 2 holds the UHF parasitic elements 5 and 6 as a director to increase UHF signal reception by the mobiie antenna 1. As shown in Figures 3 and 3a, two UHF parasitic elements 5 are attached to the boom 2a with two rivets 7 so that the UHF parasitic elements 5 are centered on the boom 2a. Two UHF parasitic elements 6 are attached to the boom 2a with two rivets 7. Any number of UHF parasitic elements 5 and 6 can be used to direct UHF signals to mobile antenna 1 in variations of the invention. As shown in Figure 4, five resilient base feet 4 are attached to the molded plastic base 2 (which includes the boom portion 2a). These five resilient base feet 4 substantially prevent damage to the vehicle roof and/or to the mobile television antenna 1 when the combined mobile television antenna 1 and retrofit kit 300 is stowed as discussed later.

The retrofit kit 300 is designed for ease of installation so that the operator can quickly and easily install the retrofit kit 300 to the existing mobile television antenna 1 on the roof of the vehicle without the use of tools or with minima! use of tools. The method for doing this shown in Figure 14 occurs as follows. The mobile television antenna 1 is raised, as shown by arrow 102 in Figure 1 , to be off the roof of the vehicle. The existing resilient base feet 120 on the mobile television antenna 1 are removed in step 1400 to revea! foot holes 150 in the bottom 130 as shown in Figure 1a by the operator pulling in the direction of arrow 122 with fingers or pliers. When each base foot 120 is removed, from the formed foot 160 of the bottom 130, a hole 150 is revealed. The bottom 130 may or may not have a formed foot 140. As shown is Figures 4 and 5, the base 2 is then placed up towards the bottom 130 of the mobile television antenna 1 with rivet holes 505 in the base 2 aligned with the revealed holes 150 in the bottom 130 as shown in step 1410. Three push rivets 3 (see Figures 9a, 9b, and 9c) are pushed-in by the operator through the rivet holes 505 of the base 2 to firmly hold the base 2 to the bottom 130 in foot holes 150 as shown in step 1420. The combined mobile television antenna 1 and the retrofit kit 300 is mounted and is ready for operation. In summary, a method for retrofitting an UHF parasitic antenna 300 to operate with a mobile television antenna 1 has been set forth. The operator removes resilient base feet 120 from foot holes 150 in the bottom 130 of the mobile television antenna 1. The rivet holes 505 in the base 2 of the UHF parasitic antenna 300 are aligned over the revealed foot holes 150 in the bottom 130 of the mobile television antenna 1 , The rivets 3 are inserted, by the operator pushing, into the aligned rivet and foot holes to attach the base 2 of the UHF parasitic antenna 300 to the mobile television antenna 1. The combined assembly is ready for operation.

In variations of the invention, use of common tools may be used such as pliers to assist in pulling out the feet 120. Or, in the case where the feet 120 are attached with screws through screw holes in the bottom, then a suitable tool can be used to remove the feet and the revealed screw hole used to receive the pushed in rivet, In another variation, the bottom 130 is conventionally mounted directly to the support used for raising and lowering the mobile antenna 1. In this variation, the antenna 1 is removed from the support and the base 2 with holes 505 formed and positioned to correspond to the connection between the bottom and the support permits the base 2 of the UHF parasitic antenna kit 300 to be held between the antenna 1 and the support. In al! variations, base 2 of the parasitic antenna 300 is connected to existing holes in the bottom 130 of the mobile television antenna 1. In Figures 5 through 8, the one-piece molded base 2 is shown with the extending boom portion 2a. In Figure 5, three formed rivet holes 505 are shown that receive the three push rivets 3 as discussed above. Also shown are the five formed holes 515 which receive resilient base feet 4 as shown in Figure 4. The base 2 has an engagement surface 510 which is open at end 512, curving 513 up into walls 514 and 518, and ending in wail 516. The top 517 of wall 516 slightly curves upward at the boom portion 2a as shown in Figures 7 and 8. The engagement surface 510 connects to the bottom 130 of the mobile television antenna 1 when the base 2 is attached with the push rivets 3. The three walls 514, 516, and 518 and the engagement surface 510 form a retention cavity for the housing 100 near the bottom 130. More or less than three walls can be used to form the retention cavity. The engagement surface 510 is configured and sized to generally mate with the bottom 130 of the mobile television antenna 1.

The pattern of three rivet holes 505 shown are sized and positioned in the engagement surface 510 to align with the pattern of three foot holes 150 in the bottom 130 of the mobile television antenna 1. The retrofit kit 300, however, is universal in that the kit can be retrofitted to more than one type of mobile satellite antenna 1 by providing more than one pattern of rivet holes 505 in the engagement surface 510. For example, Figure 7 of the aforesaid U.S. Patent No. 5,262,793 shows a pattern of four feet (and, thus four foot hoies when the resilient feet are removed). As shown in Figure 5, four rivet hoies 505a correspond to the hole pattern of this type of antenna 1. Figure 5 shows the engagement surface with two rivet hole patterns: one hole pattern is three rivet hoies 505 corresponding to the mobile television antenna type/model having three bottom holes in the same pattern and one hole pattern is four rivet holes 505a corresponding to the mobile television type/model having four bottom holes in the same pattern. The engagement surface 510 can have a number of rivet hole patterns corresponding to a desired number of different types of mobile television antennas. The four rivet holes 505a are not shown in Figure 3a for ciarity purposes as the three rivet holes 505 are shown being aligned. The boom portion 2a extends outwardly as shown in Figures 5 through 7. Formed holes 520, 520a receive rivets 7 to firmly affix the UHF parasitic elements 5 and 6 perpendicular to the boom portion 2a, Each formed hole 515 receives a base foot 4. The boom portion 2a has a first structural support 530 on either side of the boom 2a for holding parasitic elements 6 and a second structural support 540 on either side of the boom for strengthening the boom. It is understood that different structural designs can be used for supports 530 and 540 and that the design and shape of the boom 2a can also vary under the teachings set forth herein. The boom 2a need not be integral and may be a separate structure connected to the base 2 in a variation.

In Figures 9a, 9b, and 9c, the details of the push rivet 3 are set forth. Push rivets are conventional and available from different suppliers. The push rivet 3 has a head 900, a shank 910 and a pointed end 920. An internal cavity 930 exists to provide relief when pushed in. Figure 10 is a cross-section of a conventionally available base foot 4

(also called a rubber foot) which is made of a resilient neoprene material. Base foot 4 has a foot 1000, a shank 1010, and a pointed end 1020. An internal cavity 1030 exists to provide relief when pushed in. .

Figures 11a, 11b, and 11c show the details of the single UHF parasitic antenna elements 5 made from aluminum stock and coated with an iridite finish. The center portion 1100 is raised to form a cavity 1115 which mounts over the boom portion 2a. The formed hole 1120 on the center portion 1100 aligns over formed hole 520 in boom 2a so that a rivet 7 firmly secures the element 5 to the boom 2a through holes 1120 and 520. The shape of the element 5 can be of any suitable shape to act as a parasitic UHF antenna. The shape shown is aerodynamic and is provided with raised ridges 1140 that provide strength in wind and vibration. Dimensions for the embodiment shown are: length 1122 is 6.075 inches, length 1124 is 1.040 inches, length 1126 is 0.362 inches, length 1128 is 0.162 inches, and length 1132 is 1.000 inch, Figures 12a, 12b, and 12c show the detail of the UHF antenna elements 6 made from aluminum stock and coated with an iridite finish. The end portion 1200 has a formed hole 1210 which aligns over formed hole 520a in boom 2a on support 530 so that a rivet 7 firmly secures the element 6 to the boom 2a through holes 1210 and 520a. The shape of the antenna element 5 can be of any suitable shape to act as a parasitic UHF antenna. The shape shown is aerodynamic and is provided with raised ridges 1220 that provide strength in wind and vibration. Dimensions for the embodiment shown are: length 1222 is 1.08 inches, length 1224 is 5.30 inches, length 1225 is 6.00 inches, and length 1226 is 0.13 inches. It is to be understood that any parasitic element design can be utilized herein such as wire or printed conductive material, etc. other than the metal stampings shown in Figures 11 and 12. The geometric shapes and lengths of each (or of one) parasitic element can vary depending on the frequency ranges involved especially in foreign countries. The spacings between the parasitic elements may also vary, in addition the single boom extension can be any suitable mechanical structure extending from antenna 1 to hold the parasitic elements 5 and 6. By way of example a mechanical support plane connected to or integral with base 2 extending outwardly could carry printed elements 5 and 6. Any suitable parasitic element design could be mounted on the boom 2a or could be mounted to the base 2.

Figures 13a and 13b illustrate the stowing of the installed kit 300 and the mobile antenna 1 against the roof 1300 of a vehicle 1400. The five resilient feet 4 provide a triangular stow force 1310. The five feet 4 stabilize the combined mobile television antenna 1 with the installed kit 300 on the roof 1300 in high wind loads and against vehicle vibration during travelling. More or less than five feet 4 could be utilized. However, three feet 4 are required to provide the triangular stow force.

The aftermarket kit 300, shown in Figures 3 and 4, is provided to the operator with the parasitic elements 5 and 6 riveted to the boom 2a with all resilient feet 4 inserted. The user takes this assembly along with the separately provided push rivets 3 and then follows the aforesaid presented method of retrofitting as discussed above with respect to Figure 14.

In summary, a universal aftermarket UHF parasitic antenna kit is set forth as an operational addition to more than one type of mobile television antenna. The aftermarket kit includes: a base having an engagement surface and an extending integral boom portion; a number of formed rivet holes in the engagement surface of the base that correspond in size and location to at least one pattern of a corresponding number of formed holes in the bottom of the mobile television antenna; push rivets that are pushed-in to engage the formed rivet holes and the formed bottom holes to firmly hold the base to the bottom of the mobile television antenna. The base has a number of formed base foot mounted resilient base feet for stowing stability and at least one extending UHF parasitic antenna element to boost performance of the mobile television antenna. The kit is universal in that any suitable number of hole patterns can be performed in the engagement surface 510 of the base 2 to correspond to the different types/models of mobile television antennas.

Figure 15 shows an embodiment of the invention with the UHF digital booster 1500 integrated into the conventional mobile television antenna 1. The booster 1500 has two ends 1502 and 1504. Where possible similar structure in this embodiment uses the same reference numerals as the antenna retrofit kit embodiment of Figures 1-14.

The conventional mobile television antenna 1 has a housing 1600, a bottom half 1510, a top half 1520 and an antenna 110 as best shown in Figure 16. As shown, the top half 1510 snap fits along lines 1530 into the bottom half 1510. The antenna 110 aligns over supports as shown by lines 1540. All of this is conventional. With respect to the construction of the mobile antenna 1 , the embodiment shown in Figure 15 is just an iliustration. The construction of one conventional mobile antenna 1 is shown in greater detail in U.S. Patent No. 5,262,793 and the use of such mobile antenna is shown in U.S. Patent No. 7,358,909 which are both incorporated by reference herein.

As shown in Figure 16, the mobile teievision antenna 1 has ends 1560 and 1570 with the antenna element 110 extending outwardly from these opposing ends 1560, 1570. In this embodiment the extending boom portion 2a is integrated into the center of side 1512 of the bottom half 1510 of the mobile antenna 1 as shown in Figure 16. The extending boom portion 2a and the bottom half 1510 are formed from plastic material in a one piece mold.

The invention is shown in Figure 15 to be the integral UHF digital booster 1500 extending, from the center of side 1512 of the mobile antenna 1 at integral connection 1550. The UHF digital booster 1500 has an extending boom portion 2a which is integrated (e.g., by one piece molded construction) to side 1512 and perpendicular to the antenna element 110 in a plane 1700 near the plane 1710 containing the antenna element 110. The planes 1700 and 1710 can correspond or be near to each other as shown. The term "near" as used herein is defined to include both "at" or "near".

The triangular stow force 1300 is present in this embodiment. Rather than having four base feet 4 in the base 2 (as the base 2 is not used in this embodiment), the three feet 120 show in Figures 1 and 2 in combination with booster foot 4 provide the triangular stow force 1300. While the above is directed towards use of the UHF parasitic antenna for mobile television antennas for use on a vehicle such as an RV, such embodiments can also be used on such mobile television antennas when used in residential or home environments, The above disclosure sets forth a number of embodiments of the present invention described in detail with respect to the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in this art will appreciate that various changes, modifications, other structural arrangements, and other embodiments could be practiced under the teachings of the present invention without departing from the scope of this invention as set forth in the following claims.