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Old 08-07-2008, 08:29 PM   #1
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Location: Fayetteville, GA, USA
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Default Installing the HF Station in the 5th Wheel

The first thing you do is make a plan, and then screw up.

One of the reasons we purchased this particular floor plan is the neat place to put a ham radio station there in front of the picture window (behind the two chairs). Conveneint to this location is a 120 vac duplex outlet. All that is needed is a way to get antenna cables into and out of the trailer.

An exploration under the counter and behind cabinets yeilds several posibilites. I want something flexable and inexpensive. I recall a solution I saw at an antenna test range. Tempoary cables were fed into and out of a building though the wall using a foot long 6" diameter PVC pipe with a rubber cap at each end. An "X" was cut into each of the rubber caps. A cable could be pushed through the x-cut, yet most of the weather was kept out. This would be the basis of my feed through design as the cables must pass through not only the floor but the underbelly material as well.

A cabinet door is also convenient to the station location. The feed through will be located behind this door. A hole is placed in the side of the cabinet such that cables can go through the hole and the door closed after setting up and during station operation. This hole is dressed up with one of those plastic feed through things you find on computer desks.

The floor of the Rockwood is a sandwich of plywood and styrofoam. Easy enough to cut through with a 2" hole saw.

And then a disaster...sort of, more or less.

Turns out that styrofoam isn't the only thing in the floor sandwich. Right where I chose to put my hole for the feed through, there are two aluminum square channels that are just chock full of wiring. The good news is although I buggerd up the channel pretty good, not one wire was even touched.

I drilled a few "feeler" holes to make sure there wasn't anything else hiding under there, and sucsessfully placed a second hole a few inches over. A bit extender was used to make a pilot hole to center the hole in the underbelly material. The 2" OD PVC pipe was maked and cut to length to allow for the caps to be attached at either end.

More pictures to follow this weekend.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg 8280SS.jpg (35.6 KB, 379 views)
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KU4OJ "Wade" Ships Captain, CFO, Chief Engineer
KG4DQQ "Kathy" 1st Officer, Navigator, Best Friend
2007 F-150 SuperCab - 2009 Rockwood 8280SS
Lot's of mostly Kenwood stuff

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