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Old 09-07-2019, 09:10 AM   #1
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Jack Antenna Never Worked Well - Now I Know Why

Our King JACK Roof mounted TV antenna never really worked well since the day we picked up the trailer in 2015. Since we don't watch alot of TV, especially when camping, I never really worried about it. But since the antenna mast broke recently (don't ask how) and I had to now replace the antenna, I had a chance to figure out why. Here is a photo of the COAX head they installed at the factory. It's one of those silly "screw on" heads instead of a proper crimped one. Very bad connection equals very bad signal. Problem solved, and now the antenna works great.
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Old 09-07-2019, 10:53 AM   #2
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Inquiring minds want to know why the mast broke......... remember he who can laugh at his mistakes, laughs the loudest .....
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Old 09-07-2019, 11:12 AM   #3
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Inquiring minds want to know why the mast broke......... remember he who can laugh at his mistakes, laughs the loudest .....
Suppose you were pulling a trailer out of a garage and thought the door was all the way up, but it turned out that it wasn't ALL the way up? Just a hypothetical of course.
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Old 09-07-2019, 09:51 PM   #4
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Speaking from experience, all it takes is a small tree limb to break the mast on these antennas. They are very fragile.
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Old 09-07-2019, 10:47 PM   #5
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Suppose you were pulling a trailer out of a garage and thought the door was all the way up, but it turned out that it wasn't ALL the way up? Just a hypothetical of course.
Yah, well hypothetically, what would happen if you didn't realize that a new garage door didn't have the same height as the previous one.

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Old 09-07-2019, 11:05 PM   #6
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Yah, well hypothetically, what would happen if you didn't realize that a new garage door didn't have the same height as the previous one.



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Man, I'm sure glad that these things don't happen to smart folks like us.... [emoji23]
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Old 09-08-2019, 06:10 AM   #7
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But then we would have nothing to laugh about.........
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Old 09-08-2019, 08:38 AM   #8
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Suppose you were pulling a trailer out of a garage and thought the door was all the way up, but it turned out that it wasn't ALL the way up? Just a hypothetical of course.
I heard of a fellow not closing the door/step of his tent trailer before taking off and nailing a phone pedestal right away with it. That can really bend things a lot. Idiots, eh?
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Old 09-08-2019, 12:51 PM   #9
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How about the guy that drove off without putting up the stabilizers, what a laugh that was.
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Old 09-08-2019, 04:41 PM   #10
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Or how about when someone hypothetically, of course, is learning to tow a trailer and doesn't place the hitch far enough back into the TV receiver tube and slides the pin completely behind the hitch into thin air... Not the most brilliant of ways to discover how important those safety chains really are, but will probably find out shortly after the very first stop sign down the road. And hypothetically speaking, the fresher the pavement the more pronounced the long scar in the road will be. -Bea
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Old 09-08-2019, 06:53 PM   #11
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How about the guy that drove off without putting up the stabilizers, what a laugh that was.
It's just a matter of time before I do this, as I rarely use the stabilizers. So when I do, I'm going to forget about them being down when I leave. I can see it now.
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Old 09-08-2019, 07:22 PM   #12
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Aw, don't worry about it. When they're down firmly they're like anchors and it's hard to move unless, well hypothetically, something would have to bend.

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Old 09-08-2019, 07:25 PM   #13
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It's just a matter of time before I do this, as I rarely use the stabilizers. So when I do, I'm going to forget about them being down when I leave. I can see it now.
That's why wifey is required to do a 2nd "walk around" before we roll. I would have driven off without my water filter (still attached to faucet) once. We both missed leaving part of our Dyson vacuum cleaner on the campsite table after cleaning the outdoor rug though....
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