Project: Extending the TV Antenna Mast

Well, as I spoke of in the “Giving the old KIT a TV antenna” post, back in 2008, I installed a Winegard Dipole Antenna on the side of my camper for my TV installation. 

It has served me well, but has always had problems with DTV signals if the camper was offloaded and someone moved into the site next to me because the neighboring rig would partially block the antenna because of it’s limited height.

So, when I started losing TV signals again, I finally spent the $3 and bought the extra PVC pipe pieces I needed and made a removable extension piece to help raise the antenna up enough that it would cleanly clear neighboring RVs. 

With the help of the AntennaWeb App for Android that I have on my HTC Thunderbolt, I repositioned my antenna for maximum signal strength and now my shows no longer stutter when I watch them .

Project: The Undocument Projects–Part 2

Well, as I said in my last post about undocumented projects, there was liable to be some I forgot. 

In this edition, I detail the second of my two current antenna arrays on my camper, my long range Yagi Wifi Mast.

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Yagi Wifi Antenna (February, 2010)

At my last place of residence during my full-timing days before I found Island Cove Park out on Sauvie Island, I had finally gotten myself a laptop. 

Where I was staying had Wifi, but even with being parked right next to the house, the camper’s skin cut the wifi signal down drastically. 

While down visiting family between contracts, I finally decided to install an external Wifi antenna of some kind on my camper.

After several pages of discussion on the subject of various RV forums, I ended up deciding to get a custom brass Yagi Wifi Antenna with built in Wifi card from InnovativeDevice on Ebay.

The antenna is 33” long and is section, though with how I have it setup, I just fold it down on the side of the rig in one piece. 

I made the mast for the unit out of a painter’s pole and made the mount bracket out of piece of aluminum channel. 

This antenna is wonderful for use in parks with weak or poor Wifi access points as I can simply point it at the location of their transmitter and be able to get a strong enough signal to enjoy the internet, even if I’m towards the far reaches of the park.