7 in 1 MIMO antenna install

[Aegean-Blue]

Here's my installed 7-in-1 Mimo cellphone/wifi antenna.
I bought the Speed Demon + Bundle from MobileMustHave with Pepwave MAX Transit Cat 18 router and the Parsec Parsec Husky Pro 7 - 7-in-1 5G Antenna.
I used the preinstalled cable jacket and route (but not cables, more on that later) on my 2021 Globetrotter to wire it up.
The antenna sits on top of marine radar structure (a round 18" diameter base-plate screwed to a corresponding 10" high forward-leaning base I bought off ebay) and a aluminum box with lid to give extra height to clear any potential interferece from the ACs. The whole unit spans and is riveted to two structural cross-beams of the Airstream.
Did I make holes? Yes. 6 smalls for rivets, 1 largish for wires, 2 completely unnecessary ones.
The install was an f'ing PITA (more on that later) over many days but long story short - it works great, and looks great IMO. My family of five on a coast to coast over 7 weeks was never without internet where in MANY places the normal cell phone connections on our iphones and pixels couldn't cut it, the system worked flawlessly. ATT the best over Verizon and T-mobile sim cards used in the modem.
I plan to give a rough overview of how I wired this up in the coming posts.

[Aegean-Blue]

[Aegean-Blue]

And the photos have all disappeared into the ether... a tomorrow fix.

[WP53]

Thanks for posting, and looking forward to the pictures. I am trying to decide whether to just accept the limitations of Airstream's 5 in 1 wiring or tackle something like this myself.

[Yologals]

I'd love to hear and see more. I have the 7-in-1 Poynting and Pepwave MAX Transit Cat 18 router and would like to avoid using the factory present 5-in-1 wires.

[BF_Brewing]

Any updates or pics?

[Aegean-Blue]

Photos..

[Yologals]

Can you share more about how you threaded the antenna cable through the existing space the factory 5 in 1 occupies?

[Aegean-Blue]

Sure. So, as you probably know by now if you've seen the pre-installed cables the 5-in-1 cables are sheathed in a net-like jacket that expands when pushed together and tightens when pulled. KEEP this jacket in place; this will be the jacket /conduit for the 7 new wires.

To make things a little easier I cut off about 3 feet of the pre-installed jacket/cables (about 7 feet in total length I guess) - which was sloshing around in the front left upper cupboard - but leaving enough to play with. Next is a two person job - one either end of the cables. I guess you know by now where the cable pops out the roof under the little cap marked wifi. With each person holding the jacket, pull out one cable at a time. You may need to "open the jacket" by pushing on it. The jacket frays easily on the ends, so beware. Don't lost the jacket in the darkness of the roof void.

Then its a "simple" matter of threading 7 into the empty jacket. You have to use cable LUBE. I could get 6 in without, but much much easier with lube. Take any caps off the ends of new cables to ease insertion. On my first go I lost caps in the jacket which blocked things up and I ended up ripping out the jacket in frustration. Bad, bad move, cost me hours of word and two extra large holes in the roof to find the course of the wire run through the ribs in the void. It is not a straight run. It takes a few 45 degree turns. keep the original jacket in place!

I made things more complicated by placing my mimo antenna setup in the center of the roof, not to the side where the cables pop out. Having poked around from the "wifi hole" to ensure there were no ribs in the way, I cut a center hole and pushed the jacketed cables through to the center hole. The new hole is covered by the new setup; the old preinstalled wifi hole I just closed with the plastic top that Airstream had used.

Now that al sounds quire easy, right? Well the new cables on my new MIMO antenna are hard wired into it as you can see from one of the photos. So I had to get all the antenna kit fixed, glued, bolted etc BEFORE taking it upto the airstream roof and feeding the wires into the empty jacket. It was a one-time install. No easy second-chances if it all went plop...which in my case it did because I took the jacket out in frustration.

Finally, with my Husky MIMO antenna there is only 7 feet of cable. That was ONLY JUST enough length to go from the antenna, down the mounts, through the roof and into the cabinet space. 4 inches shorter, and the modem would have been too far up into the roof space to make operating it comfortable.

[Aegean-Blue]

The modem is supported on little wire baskets as the 7 foot wire of the Husky 7in1 barely reached far enough into the space. However this allows airflow around the modem, so plus points there.

The 12 volt electricity supply is provided by a spare blue/white wire that I found lying around uncapped in this space. I also tap into it to operate an on/off button I pushed thru the wooden access cover into this space.

On the white wooden access cover I placed metal handles in the original screw holes (they are in fact IKEA coat hooks!). The access cover is secured with velcro.

[Aegean-Blue]

By the end of the day I was so exhausted/relieved by the success of the installation I didn't give two Fs about the look of the sealant!

The extra items not seen in the pre-install photo of the mimo setup are the two aluminum L-shaped bars I supported the box on. I was concerned about the weight of the setup resting on the roof skin. The large metal disc in particular was heavy. Anyway the 2 bars run from a rib to another rib and are screw-rivetted on.

Screw rivets were my best friend in this whole install. Also used VHB tape in places.

So 9000 miles later on a coast-to-coast trip it is rock solid, no leaks that I know of, all is sweet.

[DaveP]

Following.

[Yologals]

Thank you for sharing! This is probably more than I'm comfortable doing myself right now, but really good to know it's an option when I have someone to give me a hand!

[BF_Brewing]

Can you mount that antenna where the WiFi plastic cap is located ?

[Aegean-Blue]

Yes, I should think so if you are just talking about the husky antenna piece and not the heavy metal mounts I used.
The husky antenna disc has a 2 inch threaded metal shaft sticking out its bottom surface. This comes with a threaded nut so it can be tightened onto an intervening surface (eg roof, special mounti). Of course, with the double skin of the airstream, this is effectively redundant. HOWEVER, the rest of the bottom surface of the husky antenna is covered in vhb sticky tape, which would adhere strongly to properly cleaned Airstream roof around the wifi predrilled hole. I believe but can't guarantee that there's enough room between the skins to accept the roughly 2inch threaded shaft plus the curvature of the wires once it's pushed into the hole.

[Aegean-Blue]

There were many times during my install that I wished I'd just stuck it in that hole and be done with it (as the actress said to the bishop) but..you know...unrestrained ambition like it was an Olympic sport: Higher (the antenna), stronger (the signal), faster (the internet)...

[Foiled Again]

Originally Posted by Aegean-Blue

There were many times during my install that I wished I'd just stuck it in that hole and be done with it (as the actress said to the bishop) but..you know...unrestrained ambition like it was an Olympic sport: Higher (the antenna), stronger (the signal), faster (the internet)...

Well. You have inspired me. Fear and loathing do inspire avoidance.
If I go this route, I think I will get a 10 foot pole and run the cabling through the ridiculous and generally useless Eddie Bauer auxiliary lower air vent and just spend 15 minutes setting it up whenever I am staying put for a while.

[BF_Brewing]

Do you think the 7' cable on the husky antenna will be long enough if I mount it flat to the roof?

[Aegean-Blue]

Yep...

[Lara_From_NC]

My 1996 Classic has a satellite dish...any chance I could use its mount hole and cabling? Agreed it's a co-ax cable....