Jupiter Jack: Does it Work? - KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff

By Lauren Keith - bio | email

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KFVS) - Jupiter Jack promises to turn your car's radio into a speaker phone for your cell. My tester, Bonnie Potts finds the adapter that fits her Blackberry. after all, Jupiter Jack promises to work on any phone.

Next, the instructions say to tune your car radio to 99.3 FM,  but in the Heartland, that dial belongs to Real Rock 99.3. So, right away, we see this Jupiter Jack is not going to work here. Luckily though, the instructions say you can also try 101. 3 FM.  In cape at least, there's silence on that FM dial, so in theory, this should work. I step out of the car and give Bonnie a call.

"Hey, Bonnie. Can you hear me? It's Lauren," I ask.

"There's a lot of static but I can hear you," she says.

However, there's a hollow sound and feedback. To be sure, Bonnie drives further away from where I'm standing.

"It's actually sounding a lil' better the further I am from you," says Bonnie.

However, the longer we talk, the more static, feedback, and delay we get. A little frustrating, and we want to know if this works better on a flip phone instead. So, we switch out adaptors.

We notice to get the Jupiter Jack's signal to work, we keep the phone in the flip position. Turns out...my phone call to Bonnie isn't ringing true to the product's claim.

"I can hear you but the volume is maxed out," she says.

So much for awesome speaker phone. This is not impressive, even after we kick up the phone's volume, too.

"I'm also kind of interested in traveling the interstate and see if I can pick up anyone else's conversations? or their radio station?" wonders Bonnie.

Wonder no more. We simulate it! Bonnie and I park side by side, like we're traveling along the road, windows rolled up. I hand a cell phone to my photographer, who's going to call Bonnie. Meantime, I'm sitting in the news car with my radio tuned to 101.3, supposedly, just rockin' out.  I shouldn't hear Bonnie talking in the next car over,  once she tunes in to the same radio station and talks hands-free with the Jupiter Jack to my photographer who's calling her.

But....that didn't happen. There's awful feeback!  Between the squealing noises, I actually can hear Bonnie talking to my photographer on the phone. Remember, I'm supposed to be just cruising along listening to music! 

"I would definitely not buy this!" says Bonnie.

To be completely sure, I had Bonnie try this when driving on her own in a different location. She traveled parts of southern Illinois and found it didn't work at all in Carbondale, where stations play music on both 99.3 and 101.3 FM. Further south in Mounds, she got a lot of static. So, she's ready to handling her own phone again.

"I'm sorry. I give it an 'F'. I would not buy it. I would not spend $5 on it," she says.

I paid $21. The message is clear. We gave this a thorough test spanning roads in the Heartland. Maybe it'll work better in other places, but I'm ready to say hit the road, Jupiter Jack. You fail the Does it Work test!

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