I am getting poor reception from my Jensen air antenna in my 2011 B+. A neighbor in my campsite, about 300 feet away with the same antenna, is also hot happy with the Jensen, but they do get about 5 channels more than we are. Any thoughts about the Jensen? Is there a way to increase reception? Is the bat wing better?

Before you go out and spend some $$$ you might spend a little time doing a thorough cleaning of all coax connections. They tend to get a little dirty, corroded, and loose fitting over time. Use some Q-tips and alcohol. You might want to tighten them just finger tight then use a 7/16 open end wrench just a TINY bit to make them tight.

We have the Jensen "saucer" antenna and it suxs.I am an antenna "nut", I have studied antennas, designed antenna, taken advanced classes in antenna design (College 400 and 500 series) and published on antennas.When we got the rig and I started testing I was appalled. At home, with the new RV in the same location as the old RV (which has a Winngard Batwing) I got roughly 1/4 of the number of "stations".So I disconnected the antenna and connected random chunk of wire to the coax on the roof and got more stations.I then bought a "disc" antenna from Radio Shack and connected that. The new antenna was at roughly 6 ft high (vrs 13 ft for the one on the RV). I got the same number of "stations" as with the old RV.I couldn't install the regular batwing as the crank would be higher then I could reach.But yes, IMO almost any antenna will would better.

Jensen has a reputation for being low end junk for a reason. Get a real antenna like a Winegard batwing, and some say the Jack is decent too. Batwing owner here.

Fifty years ago the Jenson name meant quality but just as almost every American audio company they could not compete with the imports. Many of these company's name and trademarks were purchased by importers or foreign manufactures. As mentioned above the "Jenson" now has a reputation of less than quality product but very inexpensive for RV builders.

derh20 wrote:I am getting poor reception from my Jensen air antenna in my 2011 B+. A neighbor in my campsite, about 300 feet away with the same antenna, is also hot happy with the Jensen, but they do get about 5 channels more than we are. Any thoughts about the Jensen? Is there a way to increase reception? Is the bat wing better?I found the 'TV' itself makes a big difference on how many channels received.I have one TV that gets about 20 channels. When I put the other TV in the same spot, parked in the same spot, hooked up to the same antenna.....I get maybe 8 channels. Each brand TV has different quality antenna receivers. So you can't compare to your neighbors. Actually if you want to prove that your TV doesn't have as good antenna reception ask your neighbor to switch TV's with you.Also as mention above digital TV needs real tight connections and good coax. I finally broke down and bought a new coax for the new TV and got several more channels.And lastly check where the antenna connects to the back of the TV. I found the whole circuit board for the antenna connection was loose. I took it into a RV repair and they replaced the coax unit for 65 bucks and voila I got 10 more channels!TV repair says he sees a lot of this especially in RV's where many of us take our TV's down a lot of times each time we hit the road and taking the coax in and out so many times it loosens the wires inside the antenna board.

jensen air antenna quality | Good Sam Community

12 Replies

n7bsn
Explorer
Feb 20, 2015
We have the Jensen "saucer" antenna and it suxs.
I am an antenna "nut", I have studied antennas, designed antenna, taken advanced classes in antenna design (College 400 and 500 series) and published on antennas.

When we got the rig and I started testing I was appalled. At home, with the new RV in the same location as the old RV (which has a Winngard Batwing) I got roughly 1/4 of the number of "stations".
So I disconnected the antenna and connected random chunk of wire to the coax on the roof and got more stations.

I then bought a "disc" antenna from Radio Shack and connected that. The new antenna was at roughly 6 ft high (vrs 13 ft for the one on the RV). I got the same number of "stations" as with the old RV.

I couldn't install the regular batwing as the crank would be higher then I could reach.
But yes, IMO almost any antenna will would better.
Gonzo42
Explorer
Feb 20, 2015
Before you go out and spend some $$$ you might spend a little time doing a thorough cleaning of all coax connections. They tend to get a little dirty, corroded, and loose fitting over time. Use some Q-tips and alcohol. You might want to tighten them just finger tight then use a 7/16 open end wrench just a TINY bit to make them tight.

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jensen air antenna quality

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