The Jayco RV Antenna Booster Location (Helpful Guide & Tips)
This seems to be the favorite game for RV makers to lay. They love to hide components from their customers. This is true for the antenna booster. If you search hard and long enough you will eventually find it. It is not an easy component to find though as it is well hidden.
If you are lucky, the dealer may know where it is as sometimes it is not in the paperwork. Usually, this booster is hidden in different spots depending on the make and model of your RV or trailer. Try moving some wires underneath the TV set and in the cabinet to find yours.
To learn the location of your antenna booster just continue to read our article. It provides the location as best as it can as there are different hiding spots that RV makers utilize as many owners will tell you.
Jayco Antenna Booster Switch Location
This is hard to say exactly as the location of the booster is often in different places in different RV and trailer models. For example, one Jayco Eagle found out, after being told he did not have one by the dealer, his was behind some wires in a cabinet underneath the stereo and the DVD player.
A Jay Flight owner found his in the cabinet underneath his television set. He had to move some wires to locate it. Then a Jayco Seismic owner had to remove a cable cover plate, then move a wire or two to find his. It is out of the line of sight so you will have to do some searching to find yours.
Just be careful of the dealers and paperwork as they will say one is not installed and the other will not mention it at all.
RV Antenna Booster Location
It seems that Thor and Grand Design brands are the same as Jayco. The cable antenna booster could be located just about anywhere in your RV or trailer. For Grand Design owners, it could be in the bedroom near the television connection or it may in the center cabinet above the t.v. behind a bunch of cables.
Another Grand Design owner said his was next to the radio. Thor is just as creative with its locations as one owner reported that his was in his HDMI multi-media box. On a Hurricane model, it may be in a small cabinet above the microwave.
For a Thor Challenger owner, it was behind the HDMI switch and he had to get on his knees, reach deep into a cabinet to find it. If you want a specific location for your model of RV or trailer, go to the manufacturers’ discussion forums and ask the owners. They will give you the right answer.
How to Test An RV Antenna Booster
There really is no test you can do except to check the connections first. You need to make sure they are all in the right ports, etc., as well as nice and tight. The loss of signal will be your test that something is not right.
Also, check the screws to see if they have come loose or not. Sometimes they find a way to work themselves loose and then the antenna loses its secure connection and may come off on you.
Then you can change the positioning to see if the booster is bad or it is some other component causing the problem. Also, check to see if you received all the updates that have come out since you bought the booster.
If all of these tests fail and you do not get a signal, you are left with replacing the device. Or trying to have an authorized technician make repairs.
How Does An RV Antenna Booster Work?
The best antenna booster will work with any television set you own and it will provide a signal boost so you can get more television channels. This works great if you are out in remote areas.
Some models are omnidirectional. That means that they gather signals that come from any direction. These devices work off of electricity and use transistors to send the signal from the antenna to the television set.
Sometimes, you will find that the booster is built into the antenna itself. You do not need to buy a separate component to get great t.v. reception. All you have to do to get it working is push the booster button hidden somewhere in your RV or trailer and you should be good to go.
To push that button, you must play hide and seek as there is no standard location for the button to be placed.
Do TV Antenna Boosters Go Bad?
Yes, they can and when the one built into your antenna goes bad, it means that your antenna may go bad as well. There are different components that may go bad on you. Some of those components include but are not limited to the following:
- Broken or damaged antenna.
- Amplifier went bad.
- Bad cable connection between amplifier and cable.
- Bulkhead connections are not good (there are several of these).
- The t.v. is bad.
- Converter was installed wrong.
Generally, it is not the antenna or the booster that has the problem but those components attached to the system that will go bad first. But that does not mean that the booster will not get faulty at some point in time.
You should check all the connections, the switch, and even the fuse when you have trouble getting a nice signal. Those items are more likely to fail first before the booster. If everything checks out, then it is the booster and you most likely will have to replace the antenna.
RV Antenna Booster Wiring
It seems that Winegard is the only maker of these antenna boosters. They may have some competitors but this company seems to have a lock on the RV market at the manufacturing point.
What this company has done is place the booster inside the antenna now. All you should need is a couple of coax cables to hook the antenna up to the right component and then another coax cable to go from the component to the television set.
The antenna’s coax cable goes to the wall mount and from there the next coax cable goes to the t.v. set. It is not a complicated setup and it won't take a technician to figure it out.
If you want a wiring diagram, then simply click on this link. That website will provide a clear look at how the wiring should be set up.
RV Antenna Booster Troubleshooting
The first thing to do when you are getting bad reception on your t.v. set is to talk to your neighbors if they are in the same area as you. If they are experiencing the same difficulty, the problem may lie with the signal and not your equipment.
When they say they have a signal, you should go check your cables to see if the connections have come loose or not. Look for loose connections, frayed or broken wires, and so on. Tighten or replace bad cables.
Next check the wall plate where the amplifier is located. The switch may be off or the amplifier has gone bad on you. If the former just push the switch to its on position and check your signal. If that doesn’t work and it is the latter problem, you may have to replace the amplifier.
RV Antenna Booster Not Working
In most cases, this will be a time that you will have to call in a repairman to handle the fix. If you have done all of the steps in the previous section, you may have trouble with some other component that you may not be able to fix.
You may not have the tools to handle the task and it is best to get a trained expert on the job if that is logically possible. If you are boondocking you may have to wait till you get near a city that has a repairman.
In some cases, the repairman may not be able to fix the antenna and will replace it instead. That is usually the go-to fix in these situations. Before calling the repairman, make sure you tried all the switches first. If that solves the problem then you are in luck and saved a lot of money.
Some Final Words
Playing hide and seek is fun if you are a child. But when you pay a lot of money for your RV or trailer, you should be treated with greater respect. The switches for the antenna booster and other features should not be difficult to find and they should be mentioned in the paperwork.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case and you may spend a lot of time trying to find your booster switch. It may not be in the same location as your friend’s RV.
