TV antenna questions

[Forester Fred]

Hello fellow FROGgers....it's official, I picked up my Forester 2301 today and it's sitting in my driveway. The dealer did a good job with the pre delivery inspection and explained everything really well. The coach has a King Jack tv antenna, not the old style crank up one that I had on my old camper. It's the digital antenna that stays up all the time (low profile). When the dealer did the walk through with me he showed me the on/off switch on the interior part of the antenna and told me that I had to turn the antenna on to use it. Well, when I got home I fired up the front TV and switched on the antenna....nothing happened. I had the TV do a scan for channels (after making sure the TV setting was on "air" instead of "cable". Still nothing. There are LED lights on the interior antenna mechanism but I didn't see them come on.

I found where the TV is plugged in to power and the antenna inside the cabinet over the door. But, there's also another TV cable plate that has 3 connections with a jumper cable between 2 of them. What's up with that? Do I need to switch the cable from one position to another to use the antenna? I didn't know if the antenna received power through the TV cable or not. Nothing in the literature explained any of it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a photo of the inside antenna portion. (I checked on the roof and didn't see any power cables or connections up there for the antenna.)



Here's the wall jack with the 3 connections and jumper cable.

[Forester Fred]

Just thought of something. The coach has a second TV in the bedroom - would that be the reason for the jumper cable?

[Forester Fred]

OK, just answered my own question. Went to the King website and saw that they were showing a power switch on the plate that the antenna connects to. I didn't notice this switch until I looked at the photo above - the one that shows the 12v plug for the TV in the white plate and the brown plate with the 3 connectors and the jumper.

I just pushed in that little hidden button and everything came to life. I now have an operational antenna.

But, the question regarding the 3 connections and the jumper cable still stands. Do I need to change where the cable is attached when hooking up to cable TV in a campground?

[jaibyrd]

No need to do anything with that jumper panel. Just hook up to cable and change tv setting from air to cable and you are good.

[GL1800Rider]

Just had our PDI walk thru on Thursday. It was explained to me the jumper is for the satellite connection.

[steverkemp]

When using cable TV you need to jump position 2 & 3.

[jaibyrd]

Originally Posted by steverkemp

When using cable TV you need to jump position 2 & 3.

I didn't have to jump when I plugged into campground CATV. I think you need to jump when using the rooftop satellite connection.

[Forester Fred]

Hmmm.... bclemens or Joshua Cavitt, you guys want to jump in on this one?

[aceinspp]

When going to cable just remember to turn off the little button you pushed for the boost Not needed for cable. Later RJD

[steverkemp]

For my '16 3171 the top position is sat and middle is catv. Must be different.

[bclemens]

For cable you don't need to do anything. Middle connection is Roof sat pre-wire.
You only need to disconnect jumper if using a portable sat hooked into the cable connection outside on the wall. The jumper is to tie into a sat receiver. See attached.

[Forester Fred]

Originally Posted by bclemens

For cable you don't need to do anything. Middle connection is Roof sat pre-wire.
You only need to disconnect jumper if using a portable sat hooked into the cable connection outside on the wall. The jumper is to tie into a sat receiver. See attached.

Thanks! It's great having you and Joshua on board to answer our questions.

[SilverbackMel]

Those little green booster lights are necessary and only if using TV antenna. If you have it ON and hooked to CABLE, your SCAN will NOT operate as you would expect. I mess mine up all the time.. Button on, button off, 😁😡

[dcogs15]

bclemens: Do you have a TV schematic for 3051S? Does this model have a separate antenna booster? ours is a 2013 with the Magnadyne VCS-10 video box. Any way to tell if the Magnadyne box is operating correctly? I'm only getting 3 ch in Detroit metro area (2-1,2,3) without the box. No channels with the box. I've been able to pickup 30 total channels with a pair of amplified rabbit ears inside the coach.

[bclemens]

If you're getting 30 channels with rabbit ears and none with the box...I'm guessing something is amiss. I was always told the booster was built into the box. Someone else said Magnadyne stated the opposite.