Wall Plate Booster

[Charliegu58]

I have a Jensen omni directional antenna and 75 ohm wall plate booster installed on my 2011 Viewfinder. I recently starting having reception problems when I have the TV connected to the outside connector, labeled TV2 behind the wall plate.

It still has really good reception when connected directly to the wall plate or TV1. It never really worked on cable to neither TV1 or TV2, but since we rarely camp where cable was offered, that never bothered me.But I do like to place the TV outside, especially for college football. So I'm thinking I have a problem with the wall plate booster and need to replace it.

I check around and it seems a lot of campers had problems with the Jensen antenna and many have replaced them. It seems that Jensen has stop making these types of antennas. Because of this, I am unable to find a Jensen replacement part.

I found a Wineguard RV-7042 wall plate booster at Amazon. It looks very similar and based on the installation instruction, seems like it would work.

Can anyone help with this before I order it, install it and find it is not comparable with the Jensen antenna.

[Charliegu58]

I understand about the high loss cable issues. My Viewfinder is a 26' travel trailer. TV1 is connected to the wall plate with a 2' cable. The antenna is connected to the input of the wall plate with about a 3' cable, at most. The cable input connector on the outside is connected to the wall plate with an estimated 15' of cable and TV2 connector is connected to the wall plate with less than that, may be 10'.

I guess my first step is to test the cables and connectors. I'll connect my home Cable System to the cable input at the camper, disconnect the other end at the wall plate and connect it direct to the TV, if it still does not work, then it's the cable or connectors. Do the same with the TV2 by disconnecting the cable in the back of the wall plate and connecting it to TV1 output. Again if it still has problems, it the cable or connector...

[RoyB]

Most of those WALL PLATE ANTENNA PANELS are not BOOSTER AMPLIFIERs. This is where the BOOSTER AMPLIFIER DC POWER control circuits are located.

Their function is send up 12VDC to your OTA ROOF MOUNTED antenna where the BOOSTER PREAMPLIFIER is located. This has a push button on the panel and when you push-in a switch you can see a small LED light come on telling you 12VDC is going up the RG cable connected to the roof OTA antenna. This circuit also BLANKS the cable connection coming from the campground CABLE CONNECTION on the outside of the trailer.

This is neat pictorial on how the ANTENNA WALL PLATE is connected.


Not a whole lot that can go bad with the antenna wall plate panel... Problems is most often the PUSHBUTTON is pressed-in when trying to use the outside CABLE TV CONNECTION or a bad F-type cable connection, or the 12VDC Connection coming from your 12VDC Power Distribution Panel is missing. If you are camping off the power grid the 12VDC battery may be discharged or switched out.

This is the way my WALL MOUNT ANTENNA PANELS works at any rate...

Roy Ken

[wa8yxm]

Try a Winegard Sensar Pro.. Works even better

And upgrade the Omni (or optionally upgrade it for best results) to a Winegard Sensar 4

Put the Sensar 4 up there, run coax to an A/B switch and then you can switch between them.. The Sensar Pro supplies 12 volt to the mast-head (inside the antenna) amplifier, ONly switch the switch when Sensar pro is set to Cable (OFF)

Part of your problem may be low-cost cable in the RV, Most manufacturers use lowest bidder which is always high-loss RG-59 Replacement with low-loss RG_6 will often improve performance. Epically if it's a long run.

[Charliegu58]

I thought about that., in fact my first thought was to run TV1 to a A/B switch with external cable input and then to a splitter acting as TV1 and TV2.

I really think this would solve my problem, but I would prefer a cleaner looking installation.

[Johno02]

put a splitter on TV1.