Jack antenna head

On my phone is an APP. TV Antenna Helper.

I activate it and it shows me a map, in the center of the map is my GPS determined location.. Radiating out from my RV are lines.. Many lines in many directions.. Different color lines (Colors indicate anticipated signal strength) these go to the transmitter location as registered with the FCC.

Sometimes I need to "Adjust" a bit to get the station I want the most. or to peak a secondary station I want at this time.

What I'd like.. Is two antennas.

jdog wrote:
Why would you want to move the direction of the antenna searching for an unknown channel when you are receiving in the present location?

transmitters are not necessarilly all in the same direction.

Why would you want to move the direction of the antenna searching for an unknown channel when you are receiving in the present location?

The missing channels might have appeared had the Batwing been properly pointed. There's really no way to know but that's the plus and the minus of the Batwing. It is highly directional and if not pointed properly it will not get all the channels. However, if it is properly pointed it will generally get more channels at a longer distance.

I replaced our Batwing with a Jack. Before making the switch I did a simple test. I cranked up the Batwing and did a channel search with the booster on. Got 8 channels.

I changed out the batwing to the Jack. Same test, same position on the mast, ONLY change was the antenna. Channel search showed 23 channels.

This was done in Morro Bay, CA in an area where the local NBC channel is very difficult to get because of the hills. NBC signal was very good after the Jack was installed, not on the list with the Batwing.

My Jack antenna works great. I picked up a couple channels right away after it was installed in a campground. Best of all, no more rattles when the wind blows. Even with it folded down my old one made noise. I bolted it right on to my mast without any problems. I happy with it.

B.O.

There are areas of the Country where the TV channels come from multiple towers spread quite a distance apart. When this happens (and you happen to be close enough to the towers) the Jack can outperform the Sensar on a one-and-done scan since the Jack is not as directional as the Sensar.

Dutch_12078 wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:
There are two reasons to switch to a Jack:
- It points in the same direction as the pointer in the cab

About 10 seconds work with a Sharpie took care of the pointer confusion on my Sensar III dial. :B

Ditto..

ScottG wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:
There are two reasons to switch to a Jack:
- It points in the same direction as the pointer in the cab
- It fits in a footprint that the batwing can't.

But performance wise it cannot match that of a working Batwing. Between the two, the Jack lacks performance arcoss the entire band

This has been argued to death around here and it's just not that cut and dry.
I suggest the OP do some research on the subject if he's not already convinced.
But FWIW, In my own case I get twice the number of stations with my Jack here at home.
Next season I will run both so I can compare them side by side.

It is that cut and dry and I beat you to it. Read This.

As I said in that post: If that Jack gets you more channels than your Batwing, the Batwing was broken, period. That's not an opinion, its a result and the numbers back that up.

SCVJeff wrote:
There are two reasons to switch to a Jack:
- It points in the same direction as the pointer in the cab

About 10 seconds work with a Sharpie took care of the pointer confusion on my Sensar III dial. :B