Replacing ONE TV Antenna With King and Have Question

[Asrabbit]

I have a 2016 Wildwood 195 BH. I want to replace the TV Antenna that came with it, bat wing style, with a King Jack. The factory booster supply has three elictrical wires going to it, see picture.

The King requires only 12 volt positive and a ground, plus the coax cable.

Does any one know what the third 12 volt wire is for on the original? Can I just cap it off with out issue? Is there any possible this is a supply wire for some other device?

As you can see I have an incoming coax, red 12 volt and two black 12 volt wires. The question is what to do with the exta incoming black 12 volt wire.

[Jay2504]

Using a test light or a multimeter, find out the hot and ground and just hook those up to the new antenna. Please let us know if the "extra " wire is hot or ground. Jay

[Asrabbit]

Thanks for the advice. I will do that. My concern is if the extra wire is going outbound to some other device it will not show up as a hot or a ground. I am sort of hoping I find it is some type of ground wire running up to the existing antenna. It is a heavier gauge wire than the other two.

[bubbles]

I think that heavier wire is the 12 feed wire to the circuit. !2 volts has to come from somewhere.

[Scrapper]

The red and black wires that are together is the 12v power and 12v negative. I have no clue what the larger black wire is for.

The way the power injector works is one antenna connector should be labeled ANT IN. This is the connector for the roof antenna. The other two connectors should be labeled Cable In and TV 2. When your switch on the front of the panel is pushed in, the injector sends power to the amplifier in the batwing antenna through the antenna lead. When the switch is off, the signal will be supplied form the cable input.

Did you purchase the complete King Jack antenna or just the King Jack antenna head?
To use the King Jack antenna head all you need to do is replace the batwing with the King. No other wiring is needed. The batwing signal injector will work perfectly.

I have pictures of my power injector completely dissembled below, If you need more help, just ask.

[bubbles]

Originally Posted by bubbles

I think that heavier wire is the 12 feed wire to the circuit. !2 volts has to come from somewhere.

Well, evidently the antenna gets it's power via the coax and therefore no special changes need to be made for the new antenna. Just connect as the old one was. Sorry.

[Asrabbit]

I purchased a completely new King Jack with the signal finder. It is the one can can be rotated. The antenna I am replacing is a CA-2500. I have no idea who makes that, but I did find some information on line. It is hard to tell, but the extra wire may be for a radio antenna, AM/FM.

Before I do anything, I think I will just cut the wire and see if I still have 12 volts to the booster, (I can check to see if the indicator light still comes on). If I do, then I know the other 2 wires are the power supply.

My concern was that maybe the heavy black wire was the ground for something else and if I just cut it whatever it went to would no longer function.

I was hoping someone else had done this and already had an answer. I also read that it is possible just to leave the current wall plate with the booster in place, and not install the new one. I do not know if that is good advise or not.

[aceinspp]

Originally Posted by Asrabbit

I purchased a completely new King Jack with the signal finder. It is the one can can be rotated. The antenna I am replacing is a CA-2500. I have no idea who makes that, but I did find some information on line. It is hard to tell, but the extra wire may be for a radio antenna, AM/FM.

Before I do anything, I think I will just cut the wire and see if I still have 12 volts to the booster, (I can check to see if the indicator light still comes on). If I do, then I know the other 2 wires are the power supply.

My concern was that maybe the heavy black wire was the ground for something else and if I just cut it whatever it went to would no longer function.

I was hoping someone else had done this and already had an answer. I also read that it is possible just to leave the current wall plate with the booster in place, and not install the new one. I do not know if that is good advise or not.

This is what I did as i did not install there booster just use the one that came with the present ant system. Works great no problems. Later RJD

[bubbles]

Originally Posted by Asrabbit

I purchased a completely new King Jack with the signal finder. It is the one can can be rotated. The antenna I am replacing is a CA-2500. I have no idea who makes that, but I did find some information on line. It is hard to tell, but the extra wire may be for a radio antenna, AM/FM.

Before I do anything, I think I will just cut the wire and see if I still have 12 volts to the booster, (I can check to see if the indicator light still comes on). If I do, then I know the other 2 wires are the power supply.

My concern was that maybe the heavy black wire was the ground for something else and if I just cut it whatever it went to would no longer function.

I was hoping someone else had done this and already had an answer. I also read that it is possible just to leave the current wall plate with the booster in place, and not install the new one. I do not know if that is good advise or not.

The existing wall plate is not a booster it is where the 12 volt input to the antenna comes from for the booster that is in the antenna. The replacement Jack antenna head for the Sensar antenna swap out just uses the existing interconnects and the Jack antenna that uses its own mount is no different. It comes with an injector but does not need to be used if an existing power panel is installed.

[Scrapper]

Come to think if it, I've heard others on this forum say their radios are connected into the tv antenna. If that other thicker wire is for the AM-FM radio and you cut it off then you may not get reception on the radio.

I've been thinking of connecting my AM-FM to the tv antenna. The radio antenna on my TT is on the side of the slide-out and is only 9 inches long. I get just one station and it fades out every so often. The radio in my truck and portable radios pick up 50+ stations.

[arter368rlbhk]

Originally Posted by Scrapper

Come to think if it, I've heard others on this forum say their radios are connected into the tv antenna. If that other thicker wire is for the AM-FM radio and you cut it off then you may not get reception on the radio.

I've been thinking of connecting my AM-FM to the tv antenna. The radio antenna on my TT is on the side of the slide-out and is only 9 inches long. I get just one station and it fades out every so often. The radio in my truck and portable radios pick up 50+ stations.

I would agree, On my fiver the third wire is for fm radio

[Asrabbit]

I just finished installing the new King Jack OA8500 this morning. I purchased the base mounting plate and thing that was a really wise thing. The hardest part of the job was getting the old Dicor sealant off. It was not that much of a problem, just careful work and time consuming.

It looks like the factory does not have modern tools available for cutting a hole in something. I planned that I likely would not be able to use the same hole that was already in the roof, but I never figured it would looked more like a hole that was knocked in with a few blows of a hammer head or something. I ended up drilling a hole with a hole saw that just overlapped the back of the factory hole. I want to make sure my plate covered everything from the old antenna, so I could not go back too far.

I was concerned about not damaging the coax cable as I drilled, of I tied a string to it and pushed it as far down as I could. The factory had plenty of extra cable, really too much. I was able to pull the coax all the way to the edge of the roof and work with it from the ladder.

Since the King Jack rotates I needed a matching hole in the ceiling. I used a real small paddle bit in an extension and drilled from the top just enough so the the point of the paddle bit came through the ceiling. This gave the the location to stick my pilot bit for my hole saw which made the two holes line up rather nicely.

I purchased a role of Dicor Butyl tape and lined the edges of the base plate with the tape. I used roofing screws with the rubber washers to attach the plate to the roof. I also applied plenty of the self leveling Dicor sealant once done. I covered the screws with the Dicor even though they had the rubber washer.

The only thing I did not like about the base plate is that there is very limited room in the back yo add screws much pasted the corners.

The thicker black wire that I asked about must be some type of wire for a radio antenna. It is not an electrical wire. It has copper in side with a piece of plastic running down the middle of it. However, I do not see that it hooks up to the old antenna anywhere unless it hooks to the coax cable at some point I can't see.

I let everyone know how it works once I take my next trip.

[Asrabbit]

I was able to test out the new King Jack at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park. The antenna that came with the camper might pull in a channel but would freeze up so there was no watching it.

The King picked up 7 channels. One was not very goog but the rest were crystal clear. So I give the King Jack 5 stars.

[houstonstroker]

Be careful not to over rotate the antenna. Prior owner of my coach did that and broke the plastic stop. Several rotations later and the thin coax severed. I now have a Winegard Razor Automatic dome.

[mwdilday]

It may have to do with the antenna switch that is normally near the TV. I see the cable TV coax in the diagram someone posted. I am not sure. On the photo I only saw one set of Red/Black - the other three blacks looked like coax.

[Asrabbit]

The thicker black wire is not an electrical wire for sure, (I could tell that when I cut it). When I went to the website of the manufacturer of the antenna that can with the camper, it showed the wire to be an AM/FM antenna wire. I never saw that the wire was connected to the antenna nor did I see it joined the coax anywhere, (unless it was somewhere deep in the wall that I will never be able to see. For all I know, it may have never been hooked up. Also, I am assuming if the wire did work, you would have to disconnect your TV and then connect your radio should you want to use the AM/FM antenna. Whatever the case, I just cut the wire and pushed it into the wall.