King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Topic: King Controls Jack TV Antenna (Read 3239 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #25 – May 17, 2012, 08:44:46 pm

Quote from: Gayle McNeece – May 17, 2012, 07:25:59 pm

I like the Jack design because of its compactness that should eliminate all the rattling around as you drive down the road.

Yup - footprint is the sole reason we bought the Jack even though we had a Sensar plus Wingman. In some situations, we had spatial issues when both the Sensar and our Trav'ler satellite dish were raised. The Jack solved this. It's definitely quieter while driving, too.

Michelle

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #26 – May 17, 2012, 09:31:39 pm

Is there a more reasonably price signal meter than the permanently mounted one offered by Winegard for about $69?

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #27 – May 18, 2012, 11:03:32 am

Kent,
The Jack has that option, and it is suppose to be much more responsive than the Winegard. King's SureLock™ – Digital TV Signal Meter at only $39 or you can get fancy and get the base control when is mounted to your ceiling in place of the old Winegard lift and turn control .

or

Look at the bottom of the following link: http://www.kingcontrols.com/userfiles/file/Jack%20-%20Surelock%20Presentation%20%5BCompatibility%20Mode%5D.pdf, the part that replaces your elevating crank handle.

The neat part of this is you can just swap out you Winegard head for the new Jack head without changing any of the wiring!

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #28 – May 18, 2012, 12:10:10 pm

Installed Jack this AM in Conroe, TX. Channels went from 39 to 55 and one of the new ones was ABC, which made DW happy so she can watch Dancing w/ the Stars.
It is definitely directional; in two quadrants we get 55 channels and in the opposite two we get only 35. We noticed one channel pix-elating and a slight direction change fixed it.
I cannot tell if the red 12 volt indicating light is working or not in the bright sunlight.
Purchased from PPL in Houston for $40.58 including tax. It is interesting that while shopping in their store you must ask for "online" pricing at the checkout counter. In-store marked prices are higher.

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #29 – May 18, 2012, 12:21:31 pm

Quote from: Dick S – May 18, 2012, 12:10:10 pm

... Purchased from PPL in Houston for $40.58 including tax. It is interesting that while shopping in their store you must ask for "online" pricing at the checkout counter. In-store marked prices are higher.

My experience regarding pricing at PPL was the same as Dick's experience. For anything significant that you purchase over the counter at PPL, check the price on line. They sold me goods at the lower "online" price after I noticed the higher prices in the store and asked for the "web" price.

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #30 – May 18, 2012, 01:05:07 pm

Ok things are not as they seem. I can not see that the red light is on on my jack antenna when I turn the booster switch on. So now I think I may have removed something when I installed the new LED tv. Can someone tell me where the built in antenna booster is located and what it looks like and where it is connected to the tv cable??? I am in a warehouse so the red light should be easy to see. Tks for the help DAN

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #31 – May 18, 2012, 01:13:14 pm

Dan,

For me the booster is built into the multi-switch that you use to select Sat., Cable, Ant., etc. The boost power switch is the push button on the far left. Ours has a small red light to show when the boost is "on" (switch is depressed when On).

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #32 – May 18, 2012, 01:17:10 pm

ok if it behind the black selection box I did not remove it. My booster switch has a green light when on. There are two 110 plugs in the tv cabinet. One of these has a box plugged into it which saids something about the tv. Couldn't read it.?? DAN

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #33 – May 18, 2012, 02:22:06 pm

Dick: Tks for the reply. So from what you indicated, the boost connection is behind the selector box. Other than the tv what would be plugged into the two 110 plugs in the tv cabinet. You may have a different set up than mine. My booster switch is located in the left wall in the selector cabinet. Also should the light on the jack antenna be on when the booster is on? I still have not been able to get it to come on. I am just not very savy on these things. DAN

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #34 – May 18, 2012, 03:49:54 pm

Well in our case have a Bose AV unit plugged in up there. You might also have a satellite receiver, DVD or Blu-ray player, etc.
I am not sure the light on our Jack works either and if I remember Steve and Michelle reported the light on theirs did not work. Yet theirs and ours are working fine and receiving channels without problem. Maybe take it outside and test the operation?
I've attached a photo of our cabinet with the boost switch labeled. Hope this helps...

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #35 – May 18, 2012, 04:19:38 pm

Quote from: Dick S – May 18, 2012, 03:49:54 pm

I am not sure the light on our Jack works either and if I remember Steve and Michelle reported the light on theirs did not work. Yet theirs and ours are working fine and receiving channels without problem.

That's correct - our LED doesn't light but we do have 12VDC at the connector. We also tested our Jack with and without power and there was a significant improvement in signal strength and number of channels when power was on.

Michelle

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #36 – May 18, 2012, 04:53:34 pm

Dick /Michelle --Tks for the reply. Ok I am not going to worry about the red light not being on. My booster switch is not like yours in as much as the 02 had the wall switch in the cabinet. Could be the transformer etc was behind or in the tv cabinet and if so I may have removed it. Trying to locate where it is in the 02. Tks DAN

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #37 – May 18, 2012, 05:26:32 pm

Dan,

You should be able to measure 12Vdc on the coax on the roof. I think with the boost On you should have 12 volts between the outer braid and the center wire.

Dick

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #38 – July 13, 2012, 11:36:34 am

Hi, Michelle,

I too switched from the old batwing to the Jack antenna. I kept the existing external arm and simply removed the old batwing antenna and mounted the new Jack device, plugged in the existing cable and voila, a much stronger signal and much improved picture. I dont have a signal strength meter, but am very pleased. I did this on both of the FT coaches I've owned. I don't even rotate the Jack when I put it up.

Good luck and regards, Lee

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #39 – July 19, 2012, 04:22:40 pm

I too am considering moving to the new Jack Antenna by King Controls. My relatively new Batwing installed for digital TV had half of its wing fly off somewhere between Alexandria, LA and the East Texas border.... YES, the antenna was stored before moving the coach.

For those of you who have made the installation yourselves, do you have any pictures of the finished product? Is it a head for head swap or a complete hardware swap?

I understand that this can be an easy swap for the former Batwing with Wingman, but when I read the instructions for the Jack Antenna it looks a bit more complex. The only Jack Antenna I have been able to find includes replacing the entire Batwing hardware and mounting the Jack Antenna directly onto the roof. Is this your experience? I was thinking that all that was needed was to connect the cable from the Batwing and the 12V wire already at the rooftop and replacing the rotate wheel and crank assembly inside the coach. I also heard that the hole required may need to be larger than the existing Wingman hardware hole through the roof.

Thanks for any assistance.

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #40 – July 19, 2012, 04:38:57 pm

Ron,

Ours is a head for head swap. It still uses the old Winegard crank up mast (to which we also have a WFR Boost (aka Ubiquiti Bullet) attached. You can sort-of see it in the far left of this picture

The selected media item is not currently available.
This is the one we bought Amazon.com: JACK OA-8000 Digital TV Antenna: Electronics

Camping World does not stock that one, only the full-replacement version.

Michelle

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Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #41 – July 19, 2012, 04:42:37 pm

Michelle, is the WFR boost in addition to the stock antenna amplifier? I installed the Jack last week but didn't really gain much. I may have all the available channels anyway.

Dean

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #42 – July 19, 2012, 04:48:35 pm

Quote from: Dean & Dee – July 19, 2012, 04:42:37 pm

Michelle, is the WFR boost in addition to the stock antenna amplifier?

No, it's a Wifi radio (with a 3 dB omnidirectional antenna attached) . Not related to the TV at all; the mast was just a convenient place to mount it.

Michelle

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #43 – July 19, 2012, 05:10:47 pm

Michelle,

Could you post more info on the WFR booster for WiFi as I am about to mount an external antenna and it will save a bit of research on my part.

Thanks,

Keith

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #44 – July 19, 2012, 05:20:17 pm

Quote from: Keith and Joyce – July 19, 2012, 05:10:47 pm

Could you post more info on the WFR booster for WiFi as I am about to mount an external antenna and it will save a bit of research on my part.

Keith,

Lots of good info in this Fire Ring topic WiFiRanger/WFR Boost Mobile/other external WiFi antennas - any users?

Wifiranger no longer sells the WFRBoost. They are now selling the Wifiranger Mobile (a 600 mW radio with wireless "n") instead of the WFRBoost, and the Wifiranger Go, a different router than the original Wifiranger (now called the "Home") we have. These new products are much more expensive (nearly 50% higher price) than our setup.

Michelle

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #45 – July 19, 2012, 05:34:03 pm

Michelle,

Thank you.

Keith

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #46 – July 20, 2012, 08:08:42 am

Quote from: Steve & Michelle – July 19, 2012, 04:38:57 pm

Ours is a head for head swap. It still uses the old Winegard crank up mast (to which we also have a WFR Boost (aka Ubiquiti Bullet) attached. You can sort-of see it in the far left of this picture

Thanks Michelle that gets me a bit closer to resolving my question. Another question.

I thought that the Jack antenna came with an antenna boost capability. Does this capabiltiy work in conjunction with the antenna boost switch located in most Foretravels as OEM features>

The Jack antenna signal strength function is located in the cabin portion of the full Jack Antenna system. Did you purchase the separate King Controls SL1000 SureLock Digital TV Signal Meter? If so how did you incorporate it into the system?

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Thanks!

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #47 – July 20, 2012, 09:33:17 am

Quote from: Ron Sedgley – July 20, 2012, 08:08:42 am

I thought that the Jack antenna came with an antenna boost capability. Does this capabiltiy work in conjunction with the antenna boost switch located in most Foretravels as OEM features>

The Jack contains a powered amplifier; you feed it 12V via the existing coax. We aren't using the antenna boost switch to feed it, which I think is just 12V power - we don't recall it being attached to a device of any kind, but it's been so long since Steve rewired that entire cabinet, he can't recall what was original. We use the "boost" switch just to power a 12V fan used to cool the electronics in the cabinet now.

The aftermarket kit for the Jack includes a separate 12V power supply should you need it, with warning not to use if if you already have 12V on the coax feeding the Jack, as this could damage the Jack's amplifier.

Quote

The Jack antenna signal strength function is located in the cabin portion of the full Jack Antenna system. Did you purchase the separate King Controls SL1000 SureLock Digital TV Signal Meter?

No. We use the OTA signal strength meter built into our Dish Vip211k receiver or our new bedroom TV.

HTH,

Michelle

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #48 – July 20, 2012, 01:46:51 pm

I recently installed the Jack antenna, and used the OEM antenna boost switch for that, and it works great.

Re: King Controls Jack TV Antenna

Reply #49 – July 20, 2012, 03:11:28 pm

Oh man. I just paid $125 for a Winegaurg Sensar IV antenna from Camping World and I'm not pulling in stations very well at all. You think this Jack antenna will be better?

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