King Jack Antenna?

[David0725]

I just pick up a King jack Antenna today to replace the batwing one I have. Question 1 will this replace the converter box I have for the old school tv? Question 2. I have a booster in the rv now do I disconnect that one and use the wire for the new installation?
1994 HR Dp.

[gwtriker]

The Jack antenna seems to be more selective as to the direction it's pointing towards to get a good signal ... a smidge one way or the other and the tv station is gone. I downloaded a DTV ANTENNAS app on my cell phone. It shows the direction and distance of the tv stations available. By rotating the King antenna to point in the direction shown by the app, we get good reception with very little messing around.

[Bill_Satellite]

David0725 wrote:
well darn I was trying to eliminate the converter box 😞 the batwing is broke at the gear so it has to be replaced. should I just replace the batwing or go ahead and instill the king jack? and add a new tv. I did put a new flat screen in the back bed room that work great off the broke Antenna. I could replace the front one but it wont look as nice.

There are replacement parts available for nearly every piece of the Winegard Batwing antenna. If it is as old as it sounds I would just buy an entire new setup and with the Sensar IV head and you will have the best of everything.

[Johno02]

With my Sensar batwing, and the Sensar signal meter, have pulled in stations over 65 miles away, (over Flat country). Don't think you can beat it, but the Jack is the next best thing.

[Snomas]

I have replaced both TV's w/ Vizio flat screens and love them both. I use the bat wing and get great reception when in use. The front Tv was the only one that was more of a project than the rear, but fits over the front of the original box like it was made for it.

[RoyB]

When the Natl Broadcast changed over to digital HDTV a few years back I rounded up all of my older TV's and made a King George Dump Run... Never went with the digital tv conversion box that was free at the time. I found good prices at WALMART for the VIZIO HDTV models. This last year Christmas Time sales WALMART had several different brand large screen HDTV models for sale at a real good price... They might some of those still available at WALMART. I got the 26-inch model for the main TV area and the 22-inch model for the bedroom. My OFF-ROAD POPUP uses the 22-inch model. My 22-inch Vizio model in the OFF-ROAD POPUP really gets dragged thru back roads and weird almost extreme conditions. Works like a brand new one still after being installed in 2009... Having the same brand allows you to use the same TV remote everywhere haha...

Roy Ken

[ets1996]

Also if you keep the batwing I think you can replace the broken gear, not the whole assembly. I know I bought a new one a few years back and the repair was fairly easy.

[SCVJeff]

Here is another negative on the Jack. Very shortly the FCC is going to reshuffle the band and auction off as much of the UHF band as possible, and they are pushing HARD to repopulate the VHF-Hi & VHF-Lo bands again. The Jack is not a VHF antenna and performs considerably worse on VHF than the Batwing.

[Got_Dirt_]

David0725 wrote:
well darn I was trying to eliminate the converter box 😞 the batwing is broke at the gear so it has to be replaced. should I just replace the batwing or go ahead and instill the king jack? and add a new tv. I did put a new flat screen in the back bed room that work great off the broke Antenna. I could replace the front one but it wont look as nice.

If your new TV has an ATSC tuner then there's no more need for the converter box (unless of course your other TV is old)

[David0725]

well darn I was trying to eliminate the converter box 😞 the batwing is broke at the gear so it has to be replaced. should I just replace the batwing or go ahead and instill the king jack? and add a new tv. I did put a new flat screen in the back bed room that work great off the broke Antenna. I could replace the front one but it wont look as nice.

[RoyB]

If you are going to replace the BATWING on its crank up arm just pull the two pins and place the Kings antenna in its place.

Just use the same RG cable you was using for the BATWING. The JACK antenna Internal Pre-amplifier will be powered up by the same 12VDC the BATWIG antenna was using. The Kings Jack antenna will be pointing to the transmitting TV station to the RIGHT in this photo..




If your Kings Jack is the low profile install you will have to remove the whole BATWING crank-up assy. The Jack antenna in this case will not be very high and will only rotate.


I was not impressed with the JACK ANTENNA all that much as compared with Vanguard BATWING with dipoles. I got better performance with this antenna on my setup...


Roy Ken

[Johno02]

Just connect the jack exactly like the Sensar was. The old batwing also had the booster in the antenna head, just exactly like the Jack. Both have the booster in the head, powered up the antenna wire. Unless you have replaced it, the box inside is only a power supply for the antenna, and an A_B switch to change between cable and antenna. While you are up there changing the antenna head, use a multimeter to verify 12v on the coax at the antenna. If nothing there, you have other problems. and Yes, you will still need the converter box. A friend and I worked several hours before we realized that the old TV would not work on a digital signal. Neither of us ever thought about the TV not being able to receive analog only.

[Dale_Traveling]

Question 1 - No, the antenna does not convert the digital information into analog for the pre 2008 TV's.

Question 2 - Not sure. The Jack has an internal booster and is powered by 12VDC that is feed to the antenna via the coax. If you have the hardware to get power on the coax then go with the antenna booster. Did the packing include the hardware for the power feed?