KING DTP4950 Dish Tailgater Pro Bundle

I have aimed dishes manually for years. Wow, is this thing something I wish I had years ago. Here’s some time numbers with a Wally dish receiver:

Wally boot-up time from plugging power cord in–about 1 1/2 minutes
Dish aim and receive satellites–about 1 minute
Wally Acquire signal–about 3 minutes
Wally receive guide–about 2 minutes.

Note the only additional time over rebooting using a fixed pre-aimed dish 1002 is the 1 minute aiming time.
From the description, I thought anytime I selected a channel on a different satellite, the unit would need to do the whole reboot sequence. But the dish just slews to the next satellite in about 5 seconds. Nearly as fast as having the 3 head dish.

I did notice that the local channels that s/b in HD were only SD. I investigated this and found the unit was locked onto the stronger spot beam transponder that was the SD version. On my home fixed antenna the stronger SD transponder had a signal strength about 70, nearly 4 times what the HD transponder had with the mobile dish. With the mobile dish, the signal on the stronger transponder was only about half the weaker one on the fixed antenna and the weaker transponder was not to be found. So looks like some performance is lost with the smaller size dish. Note: all the HD channels I get on 129 & 119 were in HD. Only 110 had the problem with SD instead of HD. Since these channels were on spot beams, instead of continental wide beams, I suspect I’m on the edge of the spot beam.

But only a minute to aim and find the satellite. Compared to my setting up the tripod 3 head version; I don’t think I could even get the tripod out of its compartment on the motorhome in a minute. Not alone plumb, look up & set in the elevation, skew and azimuth and connect my signal meter and coax to the motorhome.

But I still have the 3 head version for the times when the motorhome is parked with a tree blocking the signal.

I did determine what channels I receive are on each of the three satellites. Made a list of these for the occasional times when my wife wants to watch something on one satellite and I can see what channels the second receiver can get for my viewing on the same satellite.

The AUX outlet for a second Wally is a bit more complex and the instructions that come with the antenna only lead to the confusion. I wrote the following procedure after puxing with the thing for a day. Hope this helps others:

Procedure to Acquire Satellites on Wally#2 with King VQ4500 Tailgater Mobile antenna

First need to connect and achieve satellite lock on with Wally#1 (on MAIN output of the VQ4500) before doing anything on Wally#2 (on AUX output of the VQ4500). I’m using 129, since it has most all my channels (29) and I only loose 5 channels on 100 & another 5 on 119.
Once Wally#1 is locked onto satellite 129. i.e. Fox News 205, TCM 132.
boot up Wally#2. Note: Wally does not need to be physically unplugged—you can press & hold the POWER switch on the Wally until the green LED (next to the POWER switch) blinks OFF and turns back ON.

There are four “starting up screens, the last one says at the bottom right screen corner 9999.

Next the Acquiring Signal #535 comes up. This is the only point where you can take over the boot-up process. Press HOME> Settings> Diagnostics> Dish>Test Installation. Note pressing the number next to the label on the screen will jump directly to that label . Test Installation #58 determines if the switch is a DPP 1K.2 (triple head 1002), a mobile antenna such as the VQ4500, or if there is no switch at all and Wally#2 must use what it finds from the satellite aimed at by Wally#1.

If the previous switch configuration was DPP 1K.2, the Switch NONE must be saved. There are two Warning screens #836 & #963 that allow you to opt out of this process, since it changes all the existing channel info. But we do want to select SAVE on both screens to force the Wally#2 to use what it finds from Wally#1.

Wally#2 will now return to the Acquiring Signal #535 screen, followed by Guide Download #330. When Guide Download is finished, Press BACK until live TV appears. Pressing GUIDE will show the channels that Wally#2 can receive from the satellite Wally #1 is pointing to.

Once hooked back up to a 1002 fixed dish 3 head antenna this test switch procedure will need to be repeated in order to show all the channels on the three satellites.

When in doubt — because something didn’t work right—repeat the power switch reset, Wait for the 4 Starting Up screens and when Acquiring Signal appears; force the Wally to do the Test Installation for switch selection. (Press HOME> Settings> Diagnostics> Dish>Test Installation.)

works great, set up easy….had DISH walk me through the final set up… I use it with my motorhome… I have Dish at home and only cost me an additional $7 bucks a month… also can have them turn it off when we are not traveling for a while and not charged. when we get ready to take a trip, I call dish and have the turn it back on…. works great

Worked perfectly.
I had the Dish Playmaker and returned it. What a joke!
The King is the way to go.
The Playmaker was useless because the bundled Wally was defective. I returned the first one and the second one was defective also. Bought the Tailgater Pro and what a difference. Had it up and running in10 minutes.

I ordered this dish and receiver from your site. I even asked if this works in CANADA. I was told that it would.
Being situated in a remote area I couldn’t get any signal strength until i purchased a booster. I had written your company asking why it wouldn’t sync any i would be told this address wasn’t for email. Why then would you send me a unit that wasn’t meant to be used in Canada?
I wrote King and they responded quickly and told me within seconds that unit wasn’t meant for shipping to Canada.
Now is see that July 4th was the deadline for a return. Is there room for return and resend a system made for use in Canada?

Disappointed to find out you can’t get a subscription in canada with this model. Not very clear in details for a senior to understand.