KendallP
Grants Pass, OR
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the_armadillo wrote:Right now I left the Sensar IV on to see how the channel quality compares subjectively.
BTW, on my Sensar mount the Jack does indeed point skyward about 10 degrees when fully elevated. When retracted it sits fairly flat and just clears my Trak King satellite antenna. Sorry for the long-winded response.
Wasn't long-winded at all. In fact... great post! This is the first of it's kind that I've seen on the whole of the internets. Thanks!
It appears that, though The Jack just edges out the Sensar IV in signal strength, it's still something of a photo finish and not likely worth making a change in one direction or the other. If you have either one of these and nothing bothers you about it, leave it be.
Now we patiently await your subjective review of the picture quality differences.
Another thing I'd like to get a better sense of is the directionality of each. If, for example The Jack were more directional, then I would have to give the nod to the Sensar IV and vice versa. If you need something to do, you could try offsetting them by 45 and 90 degrees and rechecking signal strength, eh?
Cheers,
Kendall
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da_nailbender
Northwest
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Ok.. Newbie here... I've a Jensen Omni-directional and been reading this post. So if I change my Jenden out for one of these (Jack or Sensar IV) and do not have a directional base... then do I need a different mounting base and would have to be able to turn the unit? I'm all confused. And what about the power boatser that came with my unit, do I need to change that too?
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Kiwi_too
Western, WA
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PPL Motorhomes is cheaper
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denverhank
Iowa
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da_nailbender wrote:Ok.. Newbie here... I've a Jensen Omni-directional and been reading this post. So if I change my Jenden out for one of these (Jack or Sensar IV) and do not have a directional base... then do I need a different mounting base and would have to be able to turn the unit? I'm all confused. And what about the power boatser that came with my unit, do I need to change that too?
I had my Jensen replaced with the Jack. The dealer had to put in a new mount so the crank was in a usable spot. They left the original signal booster in place, it works fine. But bottom line on the antenna location, it really depends on where the current mount is and what is below that spot on the inside ceiling as to whether a new hole needs to be drilled.
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KendallP
Grants Pass, OR
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da_nailbender wrote:...So if I change my Jenden out for one of these (Jack or Sensar IV) and do not have a directional base... then do I need a different mounting base and would have to be able to turn the unit?...
Yes. There is "The Jack" and then there's The Jack replacement head only.
"The Jack," here is what you are looking for.
.
* This post was
edited 03/05/12 12:30am by KendallP *
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da_nailbender
Northwest
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Thanks for the info. I just purchased the Jack. I'm hopefull that it works better than the Jensen one. I'll have to share my experiance when it shows up. Still kinda wondering about the whole signal boster hook up though... new one or reuse??
* This post was
edited 03/05/12 09:12am by da_nailbender *
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KendallP
Grants Pass, OR
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da_nailbender wrote:Thanks for the info. I just purchased the Jack. I'm hopefull that it works better than the Jensen one. I'll have to share my experiance when it shows up.
We would appreciate that
Still kinda wondering about the whole signal boster hook up though... new one or reuse??
Does your old one have a signal meter? Personally, I use the one built in to my D/A converter box. But if I had extra cash, I would get one of those meters.
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da_nailbender
Northwest
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No it doen't have a meter on it. It's just a Jensen three position switch with a 12volt outlet that came with the camper. The three positions on it are .. Air-Off-Cable
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KendallP
Grants Pass, OR
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You know, the unit you ordered might actually come with a signal meter. Not sure about the booster. For more, you can check with King controls or whomever you placed the order with.
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KendallP
Grants Pass, OR
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Here's an update I received from the_armadillo on 4/24/12...
"KendallP
After I put the Sensar head back on, I definitely noticed how much smoother it elevated and lowered as well as rotated on the Winegard mount than the Jack did. This is probably due to better balance than the Jack had. Also, it did not get affected and cause the digital signal pixelation that occured when trains passed by with the Jack antenna. As such, I never got around to reinstalling the Jack antenna to do any directional sensitivity testing. I have the RV in storage currently to protect from spring hail storms recently. I still want to do some directionality tests and also place the Jack on a small bucket instead of the Winegard mount to simulate the Jack style mount and see how well it receives signals at the lower level and if I get any shadow effect/interference from my nearby front AC. From my impressions thus far, I'll probably use my original Sensar antenna as opposed to the Jack. If however the Jack works well on the bucket test, I might eventually get to complete Jack mount because I like not having to deal with making sure the antenna is stowed correctly for travel."
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