How to run Coax for booster antenna out of Fold Up Camper

[Ericmpls]

With help from this forum a couple weeks ago to use with my Jet pack & Laptop I bought a Wilson 4G Sleek booster with a 12' mag mount antenna that has 12 ft of coax cable. i ended up getting my first ever Camper last week for Camping next Summer. 1994 Jayco 1206 Fold up Camper.
Question is what is the best way to run my 12 ft coax cable out of the Camper so I can put the antenna on the roof. I will not be leaving the antenna on the roof when not camping so will need to be able to pull the coax cable back through what ever point of exit I use to run the coax out of the Fold up

[wa8yxm]

When I had a PUP the Canvas folded under the slideouts to seal.. I ran the coax out in that "folded under' part of the canvas. No problem. No holes drilled, No issues with holes remaining, No damage to anything Worked great.

[Ericmpls]

the omni directional antenna ad mentions it comes with 12" of cable not 10 ft?

Drove up to camper a couple days ago and took measurements...
My camper is 7' 8" height.. to run the cable out through under mattress and canvas to top of a 15 ft mast will be 14 feet total to the 4G Booster..and the best way to mount the antenna mast wall mounts (2 of them 12' apart) will be to the back side of camper (pic below) How do I mount the mast wall mounts to the side? Meaning when i drill the holes for the mount bolts if I crawl under camper can i put the nuts on the bolts from underneath??

[Ericmpls]

Heading up to Camper on Monday and will measure for Coax.. All I found on Amazon was 30 ft coax and I would have to get an adapter for coax to plug into the SMA on the booster. I like your idea. I'm guessing the Fold up camper is around 11 ft
in height so the mast will be 15/16 ft up and then run the cable in through under the rear canvas and under the mattress, I may need only 17 - 20 ft of coax.

[rwbradley]

I would not recommend adding a 25' cable to the Wilson. It ships with about 10'of LMR100 cable. With the 10' cable it ships with, its gain is around 23db for the Sleek models, higher for others. Switching out to a 25' cable will mean adding 15' which will cost you about half the gain you would get from the amp, you will now own a 11db amp instead of a 23db amp. Adding antenna cable length means huge drops in performance. I would stick to a scenario that allows you to use the cable it came with.
BTW that does not mean you will get huge amounts of gain by shortening the cable. Most of their models recommend at least 6' between the amp and antenna to prevent oscillation, like audio feedback but messes with the cell tower.

[Maxi_Signal]

Ericmpls wrote:
What about drilling a couple holes in one of the back bumper mounts and bolting the nast holder to that, will that be enough support for the mast/ I plan on only getting it high enough to clear the roof by 5 feet
and only putting a small omni direction cell antenna for my booster and a small HDTV antenna on the mast

Thinking of getting this with 25 ft of coax cable

http://www.amazon.com/Wilson-Electronics-Dual-Band-Connector/dp/B001U2RSZ2/ref=sr_1_11?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1446258297&sr=1-11&keywords=Wilson+Electronics+Dual+Band+-+800-1900+MHz

Do you need all 25 feet? Excess cable means unneeded RF loss. WWW.Wpsantennas will make a custom length with your choice of connectors ( excess connectors me extra RF loss as Well) Better to figure out the exact length and connectors needed and have them make it for you.

[Ericmpls]

What about drilling a couple holes in one of the back bumper mounts and bolting the nast holder to that, will that be enough support for the mast/ I plan on only getting it high enough to clear the roof by 5 feet
and only putting a small omni direction cell antenna for my booster and a small HDTV antenna on the mast

Thinking of getting this with 25 ft of coax cable

http://www.amazon.com/Wilson-Electronics-Dual-Band-Connector/dp/B001U2RSZ2/ref=sr_1_11?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1446258297&sr=1-11&keywords=Wilson+Electronics+Dual+Band+-+800-1900+MHz

[Ericmpls]

RoyB
how did you mount the antenna mast to the side of the Camper.. Meaning hoe did u bolt the 2 mast holders to the side did u drill thru the wall and bolt from the inside of the Camper ? I maybe putting up two 10 ft sections of PVC pipe and buy an Omni directional instead of using the 12" mag mount antenna. Also will throw a HDTV antenna on the pvc pipe..
Nice Ham set up bty... I miss Doing Field day... I have been out of Ham radio since 2001 and my Gen class license expired back in 2005.. & stupid me I didn't renew it then .. N0HZW

[Ericmpls]

Wow...a lot of great ideas, It has AC on top but don't want to leave my Mag mount permanently on the roof ( putting a piece of 2 x 2 ft sheet metal on roof for mag mount) I didn't even think about running the cable out through under one of the mattress's and under the canvas. Heading up Monday to where I'm storing the camper and going to do some stuff and will check that out. If not Then I like the idea of the Mouse hole wall mount

[Tom_M1]

Perhaps something like this. Sometimes called a mouse hole.

[RoyB]

I have several antennas on my roof area on my OFF-ROAD POPUP.

The window flaps have an sewed in area I can run coax in that will get from the main body part of the trailer up to the roof area. This all folds down when you lower the roof and the RG cables stays inside the sewed in areas...

My POPUP has two areas with this cable path area - one for the front of the roof and one for the rear of the roof. My POPUP is a 2008 model.

I mounted Antenna Mounts on the side of the roof that penetrates into the inside and comes out behind the wrap around valance curtains that goes completely around the whole inside of the trailer. Then the RF cable goes down the sewed in paths of the window flap material and runs to where i need it to go once it gets the to the bottom hard sides area of the popup..

I would not drill holes in the roof top area but using the roof side area was not a problem for me. Everything inside the trailer is hidden behind the valance current that goes around my whole trailer..


You can see one of my two 2m/440 Antenna mounted on the side of the roof here. I have another same setup on the other rear side of the POPUP roof.. You can also see the AM/FM marine type rubber duckie type antenna for the radio setup in the popup...



This is my floorplan for my OFF-ROAD POPUP showing where all of my RADIO OPERATIONS unit and antennas are installed. The window side curtens have the sewed in cable paths in the window fabric.


This is better photo showing more detail on my 2m/440 antenna mount...


This is how I added a quick mount TV antenna mount for my BATWING antenna for picking up local digital HDTV from the local towns...




I too use the older Wilson sleek 2G/3G setup in my truck which has the longer antenna to create a WIFI HOTSPOT using my VERIZON MIFI unit. This allows up five of our WIFI enabled devices to used around the camp site at the same time. I have a second WILSON SLEEK unit that is mounted up inside the POPUP trailer up behind the valance curtain where I have a 120VAC receptacle. This is the docking station for the VERIZON MIFI unit when being used inside the trailer.

All works out good for me when camping OFF-ROAD in our POPUP...

My MIFI unit allows us to keep tabs on the kids, pay some bills, and do a minimum surfing of the internet. We have the 3GB grandfathered VERIZON Data Plan.




When we go walking or down to a beach area we just take the small MIFI unit with us in the shirt pocket and then all of tablets etc still work just fine on the trails away from the POPUP trailer.

Roy Ken

[rwbradley]

If you have an AC or vent in the roof there is often a little space between it and the roof, often enough to run a cable thru if you peell back the caulking. However, this would be more of a permanent solution as you would want to caulk it back up with LAP sealant REALLY well after you run the cable thru.

[Beverley_Ken]

To keep it simple, is there anywhere in the sidewalls or bunkend canvas that you could put the coax through. On our old popups, there were places that you could put the coax through and then pull the zipper or Velcro tight against the coax.

Ken

[Ericmpls]

I'm thinking about drilling a hole through the wall about 3 inches below the ceiling but don't know where to get the outside wall plate cover to mount on the outside camper to cover the hole that is able to open and close sort of like this weather mount9see link below) but with a small open hole to run the cable through

http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-4937-Weatherproof-Wallplate-Receptacle/dp/B00074USHY