Fishing for Coaxials in the Desert

[Lumatic]

I want to replace the old 2 strand antenna wire on my Tradewind with coaxial. Any advice on fishing the coaxial through. The old antenna wire is still there.

[thecatsandi]

Originally Posted by Lumatic

I want to replace the old 2 strand antenna wire on my Tradewind with coaxial. Any advice on fishing the coaxial through. The old antenna wire is still there.

It is going to be tacked down somewhere. Hopefully it has lost it's stick. You can use the old wire to pull a strong string through and then pull the coax pack through. Knots and tape are involved.

[Chuck]

well..not if yer talkin' about the '71. (can't say on the newer one). The problem is that the wire goes back through a rib, then takes a 90-degree corner. Further on down the line, its wrapped up with a bundle of other stuff. no way you're going to "fish" it.
Only way to do it is to drop the ceiling. Its a pain, but its not that hard.

[Zeppelinium]

Dropping the ceiling is a true pain, for sure. I had one of the pop rivets holding it up directly under a wire bundle (thanks, factory), so be careful of any rivet that's in the outer 3 inches of either side of the ceiling skin.

You'll have to remove the lights/vent shrouds. You can then pull the skin down a little and slide a long pole in above the skin so you can lever it down. You've got to "oil can" the ceiling, which can be done without creasing it, if you start at one end with the pole.

Don't ask me how to get it back in, I haven't gotten that far, yet. I'm assuming you can just put the edges of the skin back in the channels and push up.

Zep

[HiHoAgRV]

Originally Posted by Zeppelinium

Dropping the ceiling is a true pain, for sure... I'm assuming you can just put the edges of the skin back in the channels and push up.

Zep

Anyone ever tried getting some pals and several big rubber dent pullers, sticking them along the center line of the ceiling and everyone pulling down at once? If ya can 'oil can it' in, ya might be able to 'oil can in' out.

Back on subject - the PO of my unit ran the coax down the refrig vent and out the wall, abandoning the flat lead.

[Zeppelinium]

On inspection, you will see that the ceiling skin is attached using only a few pop rivets--it is definitely not structural. So I decided that putting it back in sections was a good idea. I was going to make some butt plates to go on the ribs so there'd be plenty of room to rivet a butt joint between each section. Then I measured the skin width, thinking it would be 24" or a little less. Well, it's friggin' 24-1/2"! So that makes it expensive to use new aluminum. Rats!

Way to ruin a whole sheet (as in 47/96 [49% waste]) of aluminum, factory....

Zep

[Lumatic]

So far the idea of running the cable through the refridgerator vent sounds the easiest. I would only need a run of about a foot, maybe a few inches more across the roof.

But, the old flat wire is still there. Can I splice the coaxial from the antenna to the flat wire, replace the OEM antenna plate with a coaxial plate and do a second connection from the flat wire to the coaxial plug? Is this workable, and how can I make the splice and/or connections?

[LHall]

Our trailer is wired with the flat two wire and we use two 300ohm coax converters at each end.. one from the antenna and one inside the wall behind the tv. We attached a standard cable outlet and plug inside where the TV belongs. Works just fine and we have great reception.

[Lumatic]

Originally Posted by LHall

Our trailer is wired with the flat two wire and we use two 300ohm coax converters at each end.. one from the antenna and one inside the wall behind the tv. We attached a standard cable outlet and plug inside where the TV belongs. Works just fine and we have great reception.

I spliced one transformer into the old antenna plug inside the trailer, and will splice a second to the exterior flat wire end on the roof and connect it to the coaxial cable at the bottom of the Winegard Sensar Batwing. Does this sound workable? Do I need to worry about polarity of the connections and transformers?

To put it another way the antenna sequence will be: 1. coaxial from antenna 2. 300/75 ohm transformer 3.original flat wire to inside the trailer 4.300/75 ohm transformer 5. coaxial cable to TV. Is that correct?

[Gene]

Sounds like you've figured it out. I would watch for polarity if you can figure out which side of the 300Ω to use as ground for the coax. Hopefully there's writing on it—any writing will tell you which side is which when you assign polarity to it. I don't think 300Ω wire had a polarity issue, but coax does.

Gene

[Don Boyd]

Lumatic,
please show me in pictures what you have accomplished. also the wingman is only good for high definition TV, this according to camping world staff. Don

[Gene]

I know you have an older Airstream Lumatic, but the standard antenna that came with our Safari and many thousands of RV's works fine for HD and SD. We've used it in Phoenix, Taos and a few other places without cable. Great pictures. Of course, you have to have an HDTV.

I don't know if that antenna is called a wingman or a dingbat.

Gene

[Lumatic]

Attaching a 300 ohm antenna at each end of the old flat cable did not work for me. Maybe there was a break inside the shell.

I drilled a hole up through the front curbside overhead storage locker right next to the fridge vent. On the outside the hole is still under the roof vent cover. The distance from the antenna to the hole is only a couple of feet.

I installed the Winegard in the old Skyliner hole, but a couple of degrees off center so that when folded down it rests nicely, especially with the Wingman add on, between the refridgerator vent and the roof vent and does not look like it will be blown around.

I don't believe the Wingman is for HD only. I am pretty sure it is designed to be more effective in bringing in higher station number digital signals.