Hi all

Good to meet a bunch of fellow modders!  I've been RV'ing since 2007, and been travelling around the country more than a bit since then, too.

Currently in California, and full timing it.  Hitting a bunch of little projects recently, and gearing up for more.  Next up - mounting the DirecTV dish, the biquad internet dish, and more.

Hoping for a few recommendations and pointers in the weeks to come. 

GB 

Thank you for the welcome!

About 90% of the time, we have been near internet, but not close enough to get a signal worth much.  It never fails - we pick a campground that says they have really good internet, and we have horribly spotty signal.  Especially when on the road at random campgrounds across the country, we tend to like the spaces away from the buildings and farthest away from trafficked areas.  Besides, my kids enjoy making noise, and it's easier this way. 

I am planning on a simple internet implementation - a stationary, manual set up dish outside.  I will be attaching a weatherproofed biquad internet antenna to an old Sony satellite dish, and running cable inside.  The dish will either be on the roof itself, or potentially secured on a pole, possibly along the ladder at the rear or secured nearby.  Either way, this setup is temporary, and certainly not useful in motion.   I'm not willing to shell out the kind of cash for that kind of system at this point.  I'm in the video game business, and rely on internet as a part of my career, but I can't drive and play, as it is, anyway. 

The biquad + dish combo supposedly reaches 2-4 miles+, with a ~30db gain.  I have seen decent evidence of this setup (on both ends) reaching 8 miles.  It is highly directional, but that won't pose a problem for me the vast majority of the time.

• Dish I got free
• Biquad antenna & cable - $40ish
• Pole is roughly $15-20

The dish isn't exactly easily portable, but it is worth it for the signal gain.  I should not have to worry about locating Internet in the foreseeable future.

GB

Ok, got the mod done.  I decided I really didn't want to screw anything into the roof - I'd really like to keep that pristine, long term.

I tried the ladder mount style for the dish, but that ended up squeaking far more than I thought it would, even with very slight movement in the RV.  So, we went with something easier on the roof.

The biquad antenna is now attached to the satellite dish.  The dish is on the roof, and is held down by a cinder block, which in turn is on a layer of plywood.  The plywood keeps the block off the rubber, itself, and also assists in aiming the dish, since it has to be pointed a lot lower than a normal dish would be.

The internet access point we're nearest to is ~100 yards away.  With the biquad/dish combo, I am getting very good signal, and very respectable throughput.  And, keep in mind, this is pointing directly through the canopy of what is likely a 30 year old walnut tree.

I still have a couple other things to do.  I ran the (25') cable in through an external cabinet door, and will need to create a slot for the cable so the door will close & lock.  More importantly, I'd like to experiment with other ways to mount the dish before I start cutting.

Anyone had any luck with the suction cup style dish mount from this other mod? http://www.modmyrv.com/2009/04/28/rv-satellite-dish-mount#comment-2221

GB