Weekend Project - Installing the Cell Signal Booster - Part 1

Howdy, blog buddies!

There doesn't really seem to be a lot of noteworthy, exciting stuff going on for the Olsen family in the month of September, so in an effort to generate blog content, here's a project we've been working on recently.  I apologize that this post will likely be boring for the majority of our readers, so to compensate, here's a picture of August smiling from ear to ear in the back of the car on the way home from doggie daycare last week:

How's this for motivation?

If you read this whole blog,

I promise you'll be treated to a funny Zoe picture

waaaaaay at the bottom, too.

That'll get you scrolling!

Although we mainly purchased Arlene the camper for vacationing, we have recently been entertaining thoughts of taking it somewhere for a few weeks or a month and working remotely from that location (it's really easy to have these thoughts when it was 115 degrees in Phoenix every day in July).  While many RV parks have WiFi capabilities, they're not always reliable or speedy, and if we ever wanted to stay somewhere that didn't have WiFi, we'd likely be tethering our laptops to our cell service.  This can work fine (data usage limits notwithstanding) in a place with strong cell service, but when things are a bit weaker, a cell signal booster can be a real lifesaver.  

We have plans to head to some moderately remote, non-WiFi-enabled areas of the state in the next few months, and since I'll be teaching class and Chris will be taking one during that time, we figured this was a good opportunity to pony up for a cell signal booster, and see it if met our needs.

Arlene came from the factory pre-wired for WiFi from the King Company, so when it came time to find a cell signal booster, we started looking at their options.  They were roughly the same price as comparable models, and they were the only one we found that clearly stated they would work with 5G service (the others mentioned being "compatible" or "ready to be upgraded" to 5G, which made us go, "ehhh, really?").  Camping World was having a sale on the unit over Labor Day, so we ordered one online, and it arrived in about a week.

Oooooh, aaaaaah!

We spent some time this past week watching a bunch of installation videos on YouTube (YouTube is a godsend for things like this) and reading the literature that came in the box, so when Saturday morning rolled around, we were ready to head way the fork out to east Mesa and see about getting this thing hooked up!  Our first stop was Wal-Mart (actually, our first stop was Vovomeena for breakfast, which was as delicious as usual), which had nothing we really needed (except wrapping options for Tara's upcoming baby shower and windshield washer fluid).  Thankfully, by the time we left Wally World, the Mesa branch of Camping World was open, so we headed over there for more supplies.  After leaving with self-leveling roof sealant, a silverware caddy, two of those little green propane tanks, and a brand spanking new Good Sam membership, it was finally time to go see Arlene.

The first step for us in any sort of work process

is changing out of flippie floppies

and into real shoes.

Since we had the King pre-wire, our first real step was to take the panel off that, and root around in the ceiling, to see what we could find up there.

Commence the rooting!

Oh, I think he found something!

There's a coax cable living in the ceiling!

Checking to see if the coax cable fits the port

on the booster box.

It does!

The next step was to head up on the roof - thankfully, we'd remembered to bring a ladder for that.  That was important.

My turn!  I want to climb the ladder!

Due to the pre-wiring, we thought we might be able to use both the coax cable inside Arlene and the cable coming out onto the roof for the external antenna we'd need to set up.  Sadly, the latter hope was dashed when Chris checked out the roof in more detail and found that parting the existing WiFi/satellite antenna from its cabling wouldn't be worth the time and effort involved in such a project.

These pictures must be IMPORTANT,

as Chris took a lot of them.

After wandering over to the service bay at Always RV and finding Dave, the seriously amazing Service Manager there (have I mentioned how awesome Always RV is?  Like for reals, they are the best), Chris came back with Dave's idea of routing the cabling we'd need for the external antenna through the vent over the fridge.  Arlene's fridge is right next to the upper cabinet that holds the microwave and the dishes, and both cabinets have extra room to accommodate the internal antenna and booster box.  Also, handily enough, the dish cabinet is the one right next to the King pre-wiring panel as well as a few extra outlets!  This just might work!

Chris drilled a small hole in the upper left of the microwave cabinet (after removing the microwave - that was actually far easier than we feared) and fed the cable through.

The cabinet in question,

before the microwave removal.

Don't worry - we'll put it back in once we're done.
We haven't used it yet,

but I'm sure we'll need it eventually.

He went back outside to the roof to fish the cable through the small hole he'd cut in the vent over the fridge.  My job was to stay inside and pull/push the cable back and forth as needed, until he had just enough in the right spot to complete the process and properly wire the antenna.

My other jobs on this trip were to organize some things inside

with some new storage cubes we'd obtained

and to serve as staff photographer.

Here's our spare tire cover with all of the stickers

we've accumulated from our travels so far.

The cable to the exterior antenna

coming through the fridge vent on the roof.

The exterior antenna;

we haven't completely attached it yet.

That'll likely happen next weekend.

See all that haze?

That's from the fires out west.

Dang.

Can you imagine actually being out there,

and having to breathe all that?

Close up of the vent and cable.

This is what everyone waited a year

for me to start blogging again about, right?

Since we're still waiting on a few bits and bops to come from Amazon (RV roof tape, potentially a surge protector/outlet extender, and maybe even some adapter pieces so we can run the booster box on DC power), we didn't formally attach anything this weekend, but we did turn the unit on and run some tests.  Being on the eastern side of a major metropolitan area, where there are full bars of 5G/LTE service on our phones, we didn't see any change in signal, but that was likely to be expected.  Once we get all of our Amazon purchases in the next week, we'll head back out to see Arlene again, and this time, hopefully, we'll get everything hooked up and put back together.

If anyone knows anything about camper setups,

cell phone boosters, and/or converting from AC to DC,

please let us know!

Like, for reals!

We think we're figuring it out,

but we'll always take advice/ideas.

Taking off the false panel wall in the side of the cabinet,

and revealing...

...wires!

The red/white one is the DC wire going to the

small light over the sink below.

We currently plan to tap into this

and install a small adapter
(like the old school "car cigarette lighter" ones)

to use the DC power option.

We already have a plug-in adapter that

we can then use for a normal looking, three-prong plug.

I should point out we don't have to do the DC conversion,

but it will be nice to have different power options,

particularly if we're out boondocking,

and don't have access to unlimited shore power.

And now, as promised:

I'm a lady of my word!

Here's Miss Z,

enjoying burrowing underneath the

removable pillow topper of her new dog bed.

Later!

Amy