Forum Discussion

Bob_Vaughn's avatar
Bob_Vaughn
Explorer
Aug 01, 2015

Wi-Fi hot spot

I have a wilson type cradle that I can use for my phone. I would like to be able to mount an antenna on the roof of my 5th wheel and bring the cable down the ladder and into the back wall of the living room. I would like to be able to put a wall plate on the wall like a cable plate. I would then need another cable to hook the cradle to that wall plate but no matter where I look I do not see any place to buy them. The cable is an sma I think. I just don't want a cable coming thru the wall and laying on the floor. Radio shacks around here have all closed and comp usa/tiger direct also closed. So my options are some what limited....

9 Replies

  • Tessco electronics should be able to build you any cable you want.
  • GordonThree wrote:
    rwbradley wrote:
    Just be mindful, the connector will cost you a loss of about 1db and the cable the Wilson's come with has a reasonably high loss as well. Just by adding an additional 10' may cost you as much as 2-4db as well. This on an amp that provides about 25db gain, you will loose up to -5db off this type of setup. If you are going to be in extreme fringe, I would not recommend this setup. If you are just in areas that have low signal and you need a little boost, than this is a great clean way of doing it. There are lots of threads out there that have alternate setup's that you may like as well. For mine, I came thru the fridge vent in the roof and drilled into a shelf beside the fridge and mounted the amp on the shelf. This avoided any additional cable or connectors, looked clean and I still had about 4' of slack left. Also factor in that the antenna must be 6' away from the cradle in your setup.


    x2 on this - cell phone signals are so weak, every connector and foot of cable is just killing your signal - it's not like cable or broadcast TV
    x3
    Its not unusual for folks that have the fancy gain antennas on the roof only to have whatever antenna gain they DID have to be eaten up completely by cable losses, and then some. Adding additional SMA connectors and barrels just exacerbates that.
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    Bob - I bet you can snake the antenna RG cable up behind the fridge and get to the roof coming out the FRIDGE VENT COVER. Would be nice to NOT have to cut the OEM cable and make it longer with additional connectors. May be designed just for the shorter RG cable that comes with the kit. My install inside my OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer was close to charge socket so I could keep my Verizon MIFI unit going longer than the usual four hours of charge on its internal battery.

    I have been using this idea for some time now with my VERIZON MIFI unit but this is either in my truck or in my OFF_ROAD POPUP. It works rather well giving my a larger foot print at the camp site when using inside the OFF-ROAD POPUP setup. Covers outside all around the camp site giving us WIFI for five of our wifi enabled units.

    When using it in the truck I am able to use the tablets going down the road and staying connected to the internet pretty good using the MIFI unit which is sitting in the WILSON CRADLE.

    I think I also get some connectivity to the outside antenna if my cellphone is within a foot or so of the CRADLE... Seems to hold better on the towers going down the road... The CRADLE and the CELL PHONE HOLDER are pretty close to each other in my truck.

    ALot of times we just turn the MIFI on still sitting in the WILSON CRADLE inside the truck and it works for us almost as good as it does if I move it to the OFF-ROAD TRAILER. The truck does the same thing about extending the WIFI footprint around the truck too...

    My WILSON CRADLE is one of the older one however... NOT 4G capable...

    Roy Ken
  • Do any of You remember when Radio Shack was just a Single Store that had a Catalog Department!? When I was about 12 or 13 I Would order things like Diodes and Simple printed circuit boards to build radios etc.

    They may just be returning to their Roots!
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    You can order just about everything using AMAZON with two day shipping... Just type in google SMA CONNECTORS followed by the word AMAZON... Then go through all there stock to find find what you need...

    Radio Shack pretty much all but gone here as well...

    Roy Ken
  • rwbradley wrote:
    Just be mindful, the connector will cost you a loss of about 1db and the cable the Wilson's come with has a reasonably high loss as well. Just by adding an additional 10' may cost you as much as 2-4db as well. This on an amp that provides about 25db gain, you will loose up to -5db off this type of setup. If you are going to be in extreme fringe, I would not recommend this setup. If you are just in areas that have low signal and you need a little boost, than this is a great clean way of doing it. There are lots of threads out there that have alternate setup's that you may like as well. For mine, I came thru the fridge vent in the roof and drilled into a shelf beside the fridge and mounted the amp on the shelf. This avoided any additional cable or connectors, looked clean and I still had about 4' of slack left. Also factor in that the antenna must be 6' away from the cradle in your setup.


    x2 on this - cell phone signals are so weak, every connector and foot of cable is just killing your signal - it's not like cable or broadcast TV
  • Just be mindful, the connector will cost you a loss of about 1db and the cable the Wilson's come with has a reasonably high loss as well. Just by adding an additional 10' may cost you as much as 2-4db as well. This on an amp that provides about 25db gain, you will loose up to -5db off this type of setup. If you are going to be in extreme fringe, I would not recommend this setup. If you are just in areas that have low signal and you need a little boost, than this is a great clean way of doing it. There are lots of threads out there that have alternate setup's that you may like as well. For mine, I came thru the fridge vent in the roof and drilled into a shelf beside the fridge and mounted the amp on the shelf. This avoided any additional cable or connectors, looked clean and I still had about 4' of slack left. Also factor in that the antenna must be 6' away from the cradle in your setup.
  • MrWizard wrote:
    SMA female face plate bulkhead mount

    They do exist
    I think this will do it
    Get these and a blank wall plate cover
    Drill hole in cover , mount in cover

    Now I will need a cable to go from the cradle to the wall plate and a 1'-2' would be long enough I think....

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