Installation of External Cellular Antenna on the RV

This afternoon, my friend David G and I installed a Low Profile External Cellular Antenna on the RV. This antenna will be used with the Novatel 4620LE Cellular Modem to improve cellular data performance.

The antenna is an LPMM-7-27. It has two 3G/4G cellular antennas in a single package. The antenna was obtained from wpsantennas.com, a retail supplier of items to enhance the signal on wireless devices.

I chose the rooftop as the mounting location in order to obtain maximum height. The specific location was chosen based on where I could run the antenna leads into the RV and to the modem.

This particular antenna requires no ground-plane and is designed to be mounted through a bracket or a panel. I had neither and elected to mount it directly to the roof. The bottom of the antenna base had a peel-and-stick sort of adhesive on it. I used that and a bead of clear adhesive around the antenna base.

Here’s the full specs for the antenna.

Here’s what the completed roof-top installation looks like. The antenna is located between the two vent pipes and to the left of the WiFi Ranger Sky WiFi Repeater.

Installation Complete on roof of 2014 Heartland Landmark Savannah RV

Here’s the equipment that, mounted indoors that this new antenna supports. The signal from the LPMM-7-27 Cellular Antenna connects to the external antenna port of the Novatel 4620LE Cellular Modem from Verizon. The Cellular Data signal is fed via USB to the WiFi Ranger Go Router. The WiFi Ranger Go Router supplies Internet service to devices used in and around the RV via WiFi and Ethernet. One of the Ethernet ports on the Router feeds the Smartthings Home Automation Hub. See more about the “Smartthings in an RV” project in this blog post.

Performance

Right now, the RV is inside the RV garage, so no decent testing can be performed. I’ll be hitting the road soon and will do some performance testing. I’ll supply power levels as measured at the Novatel 4620LE, with and without the antenna connected. I’ll do this a couple of times over the next 30 days in a couple locations around the U.S.

Below are a few more antenna installation pictures.