We All Need a Little Boost Once in a While

Friday, 9 March

Internet connectivity — when it works, we claim technology is a wonderful thing; when it doesn’t work, we curse it as the bane of our existence.

Being connected while we’re on the road is essential for us.  After all, it will be our primary means of keeping in touch with loved ones (especially those overseas).  We’ve got our aircard and our router set up, but expecting 100% connectivity is just not realistic.  So, we have a plan to reduce our “downtime” to a minimum.

The characters in this story are:

Wilson
(Dual-Band RV/Trucker/Boat Roof-Mount Cellular Antenna; Dual-Band Wireless Amplifier;
and Power Converter Kit (aka the Home/Office Accessory Kit).

Mr. Two to Travel — aka, Mui the “Tool man.”
(Sorry; his name is not Tim Taylor; or maybe that’s a good thing!)

Mrs. Two to Travel — aka, Erin the “Tool Woman.”
(Think of me as the nurse who hands the surgeon what he needs to operate.)

After doing voluminous amounts of research on the web, and talking — and online-chatting — with a whole bunch of solution-specialists, Mui was set to order all the bits and pieces he needed to install a Wilson antenna system to boost our cell signal.

But first things first.  Being a “measure twice, cut once” kind of guy, Mui drove out to the Phaeton to make sure the roof-mount antenna was not going to present any ‘clearance’ issues.  No problem — the two other antennas on the roof turned out to be taller than the one he planned to install.

Next, he called Tiffin to verify that there was nothing he needed to beware of between the overhead cockpit cabinets and the roof of the coach.  “No problem,” the tech told him, “go right ahead.”

The existing antennas are taller than 18 inches (46 cm) so we’re good to go.
The top right photo shows the tape measure (we didn’t have a rope to dangle)
dropped from the roof to eyeball the spot to drill up from inside the cabinet. 

The installation spanned two weekends.  Not because it took Mui that long to get the job done, but because we had to wait for a longer mounting rod; the standard rod was too short for the distance from the roof to the cockpit cabinets.  Aside from that delay, I would say that the entire project took us about 6 hours.  Oh, by the way, we installed not one, but two antennas during that time — one on the Phaeton and one on the Honda CR-V we tow.

First, Mui used a small drill to go up through the cockpit cabinet and the ceiling; he needed just a pinprick on the roof to know where to drill down from using the 5/8-inch bit, which was too big to use inside the cabinet.  Then he drilled down from the roof to get the right-size hole for the mounting rod.  That done, it was a matter of fishing the antenna cable down through the hole; securing the antenna to the roof with nuts and bolts; waterproofing it all with silicone; and attaching the radials to the antenna.

The work on the roof of the Phaeton is done.

Taking a union break before tackling the job inside.

I join Mui for a roof-top snack break.

Next up, the internal components.  The install process for the amplifier, internal antenna, and power kit essentially required drilling through a series of overhead cabinets; securing cords and cables; and mounting the equipment and a multi-outlet surge protector on the wall of what will now be our “internet control center.”  (Electrical outlet conveniently located in the adjacent cabinet, so he didn’t have to route any electrical wiring.)

Mui drilled along the inside bottom edge of the  cabinets so everything is neatly hidden.

components are mounted and cables are tucked away; no rats nest of cords (thanks, Mui).
middle photo: the Wilson amplifier (blue box), the internal antenna (better seen in the
top left photo), the CradlePoint Router for the aircard, and the surge protector.
bottom left: a few of the gauges and the electrical outlet in the cabinet Dubbed “gauge-central.”

The process for installing the antenna on the roof of the CR-V was similar, but easier because the distance to be drilled through was much less; plus, there was a conveniently placed grommet-access through the ceiling cover.  Mui did have to trim the 7-inch (18 cm) mounting rod by about 3 inches (8 cm) because there was too much sticking out from the ceiling; don’t need no safety hazards in the cargo bay.

Easier to drill through the thin roof of the CR-V.

The rest of the system components were easily installed as well.  Since the internal antenna needs to be no more than 2 feet (~60 cm) from the cell phone/aircard, Mui tucked it under the cover of the driver’s seat (conveniently zippered).  He fished the cable from that antenna under the seats and beneath the cover in the cargo area to the amplifier, which he mounted in a niche near the door.  Then he fished the cable from the external antenna through another grommet in the ceiling of the CR-V and under the cargo door seal to keep it safely tucked away.  As for the power source … a conveniently placed electrical outlet next to the door solved that problem.

Quite a bit of cable-fishing was involved, but the internal install was quite easy too.

The “Tool Man” is happy with how the install went on both antennas.

Another project brought to a successful conclusion.  Or so we hope.  Being in the middle of a city where the cell signal is already at full strength, testing is going to have to wait until we can get to a low-signal area.  In the meantime, the amplifier lights indicating input and output are green, so we don’t anticipate any problems.

For the technically inclined, here’s the link to the Wilson Electronics website.  The particular models we purchased are:

• Antenna: Model #301119 (from Amazon)
• Amplifier (including the Internal Antenna): Model #801201 (from Newegg)
• Home/Office Accessory Kit: Model #859954 (from Newegg)
• 12” Threaded Rod Mount: Model #901116 (from Amazon)

For those interested in full size photos of the install, click here for our online gallery.

In conclusion, I would like to acknowledge the input of my Technical Advisor on this post: Mui the “Tool Man.”  He still won’t write a blog post, but at least he’s willing to answer questions so that I sound like I know what I am writing about :-)