VQ4500

This thing works great! My first test was in my yard, surrounded by trees, fences and power lines- and on a cloudy, rainy night. I just hooked up the cable, put it down on my lawn, and went back inside figuring that it would never work- but it found all of my channels! Then we took it on our next camping trip- it was another stormy, rainy night and I put it on the ground next to the south side of my RV. The next RV was pretty close and they had their awning out, (in a storm?- not too smart), so again I didn't have much hope of it working, but again I was surprised that it managed to find my channels. A one point it was really pouring outside and I started to get the message that it was switching to an SD equivalent channel, but I'm pretty sure that was just because of the water on the dome. Really impressed with how well this works. I plugged its cable into the Cable TV input of my RV and then removed the Cable TV cable from my switch box and connected to the 211Z receiver input. Took like 5 minutes to install. Just need to get a cable to lock it to something as I was a bit worried that someone nefarious camper would walk off with it.

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.)

Had an older tailgater that died and decided to get the new one to see if it works as well. So far, so good. In my previous review I strongly suggested hooking the 211Z receiver up to an existing known good dish so it can download the latest firmware. I still stand by that statement. This new tailgater is smaller and lighter than it's predecessor, and can also be permanently mounted if need be. The old meatball died a bad death, Hopefully the new one will last a bit longer. It's not necessary to keep it pointed when setting up, but I strongly suggest you just pick a feature and make sure that feature (like the handle) is pointed directly north every time you set it up. It will take less time for it to figure out where it's at. Happy so far. I hope this one lasts longer than the old meatball.

Works great - simple and easy. As a fulltime motorcoach family, we have used a standard manual 'dish' 1000.2 with a tripod, which can be tricky to learn to setup and find the sats. I purchased this new King Tailgater when I realized that setting up a manual dish everyday when traveling can be a little too labor intense. I also wanted this unit because it can be mounted to your roof, either fixed, or with us, with a temporary bracket setup that allows me to leave it where it sits if the sats are in view, or easily move it slightly to either side of the roof, or even down to the ground, if needed. This creates a much easier and more enjoyable setup to watch our favorite channels. Just park, turn on the receiver, and watch it find the sats. One draw back that I might note: the 'secondary' coax OUT will allow you to run another receiver, but the secondary receiver will only provide channels from the satellite that the MAIN tv is tuned into. So, if you are watching a channel on the MAIN tv in the living room on sat 110, then the bedroom SECONDARY receiver will only pick up channels from that same satellite. This works fine, until you forget and change the main tv to a channel from a different sat, such as 119 or 129. The secondary tv then goes 'blank' and says that it can not find the channel. We leave our main tv on sat 110, which seems to provide most of the common channels we prefer, and the secondary tv can watch any of those same channels. It's a little aggravating when you are accustomed to watching anything you want from any tv, but it works as described, if you can find the 'flow' and stick with it.

Replaced my old winnegard carryout that needed separate power supply. Absolutely fantastic. Installed in less 10 minutes. Smaller and faster than Carryout. Did not have to change anything in my 2016 Jayco Melbourne. Just hook up satellite with the cable supplied to my cable connection in my outside compartment and job done.

This product will not work for Bell express view and should be sold as though it does!

Don t work with shaw or bell