Update on Jack Antenna install

Here is a thread about a test made between the Winegard and the Jack. It, along with the OP's post and the discussion in this thread, should help in consideration of what antenna to purchase.
Winegard vs Jack antenna comparison

Since the OP posted to give the results of his experience, and the discussion has turned somewhat personal in nature and off topic, I am going to close this thread. Thank you all for your participation.
Barney

LarryJM wrote:

John&Joey wrote:
Let's see theoretical vs true life experience.

Thanks for the post.

Nothing theoretical about what Jeff or I posted, just FACTS and you could say it's the difference in having a system with issues and/or not understanding how to use it, vs a properly operating and understanding how to use it system ... that's knowledge vs. lack of same. If you are seeing an improvement you only proved that you had some issue with the system you had or were not using it properly.

Sort of like saying a bike is faster than a car, but leaving out the fact that the car is broke and must be pushed and that is why you can get there faster on the bike than using the broke car and pushing it.

Larry

I would never assume that those that are posting good results didn't know what they were doing.

I do know that a person can fully understand the workings of an internal combustion engine, yet could not fix one if it broke down.

John&Joey wrote:
Let's see theoretical vs true life experience.

Thanks for the post.

Nothing theoretical about what Jeff or I posted, just FACTS and you could say it's the difference in having a system with issues and/or not understanding how to use it, vs a properly operating and understanding how to use it system ... that's knowledge vs. lack of same. If you are seeing an improvement you only proved that you had some issue with the system you had or were not using it properly.

Sort of like saying a bike is faster than a car, but leaving out the fact that the car is broke and must be pushed and that is why you can get there faster on the bike than using the broke car and pushing it.

Larry

Let's see theoretical vs true life experience.

Thanks for the post.

I also replaced batwing with JackD and went from 3 barely there channels to over 30. Huge difference simple to do and everyone should do it.

SCVJeff wrote:

dodge guy wrote:

camperpaul wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:
You obviously replaced a broken antenna. A working Batwing will easily match that

With the Jack® you'll lose most of your VHF-hi stations and ALL of your VHF-low stations.

And what would those be? I have all the same stations now that used to be around before digital! I have the stations that i've always known as VHF and UHF. Not missing any.

As for a broken batwing, then it was broken since day one, and my buddy's has also been broken then since 06 ( when he bought his trailer new). He doesn't get any either.

If you look at the channels that were abandoned in your area for the digital change you might be surprised. Just because it's the channel you recognize doesn't mean it's still really on that channel.

As for the antenna, it's entirely possible you had a bad antenna since day one, who knows. What I do know it that the Jack doesn't perform as well as the Batwing on any band, and not at all on VHF-Lo as Paul mentioned. The best thing about the Jack is its size. That's also one of the reasons it lags behind the Batwing in performance, but it also fits places the Batwing won't go.

You are correct about the relative performance between the two and AFAIK the Batwing is a little more sensitive to orientation because of the narrower main beamwidth so for close in stations located spatially the Jack might get more channels from a single aim point than the Batwing. That is the only advantage and you can do about the same with an omnidirectional antenna too. This is why I believe folks like Dodge Guy and others who don't really understand how these antennas work technically think that less capable antennas like the Jack work better than some of the more capable ones like the Batwing with the UHF add on.

I haven't done a direct comparision but for UHF and decent VHF the "Antennas Direct C2-V-CJM ClearStream 2-V" does a great job and could easily be mounted in place of the Batwing head if one has the side clearance for the VHF arms on the ClearStream. I bought one because I thought something was wrong with my Batwing and after getting all the stations with the ClearStream I did some trouble shooting and found I have a BAD roof feed thru for my Batwing that I have to fix when I get back from our current road trip. My feed thru is one of the plate connectors and not the normal cable feed thru on the Batwing antenna base and is Eternabonded so I have to remove that to remove the plate and fix the connection on the bottom of the plate connector. Here is a pic of my feed thru to the left of the Batwing base


Larry

dodge guy wrote:

camperpaul wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:
You obviously replaced a broken antenna. A working Batwing will easily match that

With the Jack® you'll lose most of your VHF-hi stations and ALL of your VHF-low stations.

And what would those be? I have all the same stations now that used to be around before digital! I have the stations that i've always known as VHF and UHF. Not missing any.

As for a broken batwing, then it was broken since day one, and my buddy's has also been broken then since 06 ( when he bought his trailer new). He doesn't get any either.

If you look at the channels that were abandoned in your area for the digital change you might be surprised. Just because it's the channel you recognize doesn't mean it's still really on that channel.

As for the antenna, it's entirely possible you had a bad antenna since day one, who knows. What I do know it that the Jack doesn't perform as well as the Batwing on any band, and not at all on VHF-Lo as Paul mentioned. The best thing about the Jack is its size. That's also one of the reasons it lags behind the Batwing in performance, but it also fits places the Batwing won't go.

I had my bat wing replaced this past week. I am really looking forward to the first weekend out with it. I paid CW to install it (paid for it last year when they had the $29 installation special) and will be picking up the motorhome this week after they inspect it. I will let you know how it faired to the old antenna (but everything I've read said the Jack was going to out perform the bat wing).

SCVJeff wrote:
You obviously replaced a broken antenna. A working Batwing will easily match that

Guess i had a broken bat wing in my last two trailers. The jack gets way more stations then i ever got with the bat wing.

camperpaul; what gives you the idea that he'll lose all those stations VHF-Hi and ALL VHF-Lo. I've been using a JACK antenna for over 3 years and have never missed a single station. In fact when I switched out a NEW batwing for the JACK I got an additional 5 channels and the other 3 I had before were not breaking up as with the batwing. By far the JACK is a far superior antenna.