Resolved Dish Issue

[Gronk]

Hey, I just purchased a King Tailgater Pro bundled with two Wallys. I got both up and running, but then the secondary Wally gives the error message "Lost Satellite Signal". I rebooted the Wally and end result is the same. It works for the first couple of channel changes and lost signal message appears. Main Wally functions like it is supposed to. If I swap coax on the Tailgater then that Wally works perfect, BUT the other one looses signal. I have a call into King for tech support, but they have a message "Due to larger than normal inquiries leave a message and we will call you back in TWO to THREE DAYS"!! Anyone have any suggestions for either troubleshooting or do I wait for a phone call? If it turns out to be the Tailgater they claim I have to ship mine to them (at my expense) and they will see what is wrong with it. Sounds to me like a great way to deny warranty......

 

[Just George]

@Gronk I have Dish and Wally receivers but do not have the antenna system you have. My assumption is the antenna you have can only lock onto one sat at a time. Based on your description of the issue it sounds to me like the coax that "always works" is a 'master" that controls which sat the antenna is locked on based on the channel selection on that Wally. It sounds like the second coax which works on some channels is limited to what ever channels are on the sat that the "master" is locked onto.

 

[Gronk]

George, you are correct, but I get absolutely nothing on the secondary wally. The primary is the one that decides which satellite we are on, but I can not even get the same channel on the secondary that the primary is on. Like I said, the error message is signal lost. As of 8PM PDT I have not gotten a call back from King. I called them Saturday morning. Some customer service.........

 

[Just George]

@Gronk So If I understand both receivers work fine when connected to the antenna MAIN connection and both receivers have the malfunction when connected to the antenna AUX connection, is that accurate? When you connect the receiver to the AUX connection have you run the switch test then a receiver reset? (i.e. hold the power button for 10 sec to reset)

 

[Buly]

I gave up on the second Wally myself. Even the paid technician could not make it work?

 

[Gronk]

George, you are correct. No matter what I do the second one will not have a signal. Still waiting for a call back from King......
Buly, you don't make me confident with your experience!

 

[Neal]

Have you tried calling Dish? My experience with their customer service has been great. They can see each Wally box and may be able to tell you what they see is the problem.

 

[Gronk]

Yep, Neal, I called Dish probably four times and they said I need to contact King. They had no idea as to why I keep getting the no signal error other than something defective in the antenna. I was really hoping it was something stupid simple that I was missing.

 

[Neal]

Just thinking out loud, try swapping Wally boxes to make sure one is not defective? Is it the same endpoint that has the problem?

 

[Gronk]

Swapped coax at the antenna and which ever wally is on the primary output of the antenna everything works and secondary has no signal. That tells me that the boxes and coax are functional, so that only leaves one thing left.

 

[Gronk]

GOT IT WORKING!! Woo Hoo! I contacted the seller about warranty and they gave me the names of two warranty places. One was an RV dealer and the other (closer) is a TV and satellite repair place. I tried the RV place first since the seller said they would swap antennas, but they wanted me to leave a message and they would call me back. I called the TV place and the owner answered the phone. Shout out to Dan's TV and Satellite in Port Townsend, Washington!! Anyhow, he had me plug it in and withing five minutes it was functioning! He said that in order to make it function you need to have it UNPLUGGED when you set the primary wally up. Once you have that done and a picture on the main TV go ahead and plug in the secondary wally and DO NOT try to set it up. Just allow it to 'do its thing' and it will set itself up. Did that and it works! Now i'm waiting for Dan to call me back with a price and availability of a new TV.......

 

[Neal]

Great to hear! Enjoy!

 

["EZ"]

Whew! Don't you just love the "customer service" of a lot of companies nowadays???

 

[Just George]

Excellent! Glad you got it working but sorry for the pain you experienced to get there. Thanks for sharing the solution it's likely to help others down the road.

 

[Gronk]

I even managed to save $500 or so on a new tv! The tv guy said it was probably a loose connection and tap on the tv to confirm. Yep, when I tapped it there was a bright flash on the screen. Took the back off and found the plug that supplies the screen was a little crooked. Reseated it and it now works like it should!!
Oh, still nothing from King........

 

[Gronk]

WELL, CRAP...... this issue is not resolved.Same problem. Last night I did a reset on it that resets the receiver back to factory default settings. It did its thing and voila..... It works. This morning I turned it on and it worked. An hour later it didn't. No signal.
I FINALLY got a call back from King. It took from Saturday to today to get a call back. they had me try a couple of things and the result was no signal. Their response is "Send it to us at your expense and we will see IF there is anything wrong". That sounds like a real good way to void warranty repairs because I have no way to verify what they do to check.
I called a local TV and Satellite repair place to get someone here to diagnose things (at my expense) so that I can have some concrete diagnostics. We'll see....... I am so frustrated.......

 

[Gronk]

Well, I guess now this thread can be marked 'resolved'. I had a guy stop by and he said my issue was that the secondary receiver was not 'smart enough' to determine that the primary receiver had switched satellites. There are two different fixes for it. One is to test the switch every time it is going to be used (about a 5 to 10 minute process) then only watch what is on that particular satellite until the primary switches satellites and do the switch test again, or buy another satellite antenna. Wife decided that another antenna was the way to go, so $450 later (service call and antenna) it will be fixed on Monday when the new antenna is delivered. That would make each receiver a primary on its own antenna.