First off, if I can avoid using the tailgater, I will. But I was camping and the nascar race was on nbc sports network. So knowing the two devices don’t like to play well together, I give myself an extra hour of setup time. I get the tailgater plum on it’s tri stand, there isn’t a tree or cloud anywhere in the southwestern sky, and I triple check to make sure the handle is pointed north. Plug everything in, and the Wally goes straight to acquiring signal. At this point I know I have a fight on my hands, and I dig up every troubleshooting post from dozens of message boards and prepare for war.
First thing I do is unplug the tailgater and run a check switch. Then unplug the Wally, connect the tailgater, and plug the Wally back in. This time it asks for my state, and I figure I’ve won. It runs through the check switch without issues but hangs at aquiring signal. So I move the tailgater, get it higher off the ground, quadruple check levelness, and the handle is pointed north. But it was of no use, the Wally was simply refusing to acquire a signal.
During one of the 200 test installions, I’m finally able to select satellites from the drop down menu. 110 was 44, 119 was 42, and 129 was hovering just under 30. So I know it is seeing all three satellites, but for whatever reason, refusing to get out of the aquire signal step. With nothing else to try, I decide I may as well take the dome off the tailgater. After taking it off, I run the switch test, and despite its 3 years of age, it runs flawlessly. 180 clockwise, then 360 counter, back to 110, after zeroing in on 110, moved to 119, finally to 129, and then the acquire signal pops up, where yet again it hangs and for the 300th time informs me I might have some blockage.
With nothing else to try, and since two hours had past, I figured factory reset was my last hope. And for the last time it ran through the check switch flawlessly, got to acquire signal stage, and the screen went black and I could kind of make out the outlines of the progress box, but it was clear the Wally won the fight, and in order to prevent a total meltdown, which would have landed $600 worth of electronics into the lake, I accepted defeat. I ended up watching the race on my 5 inch iPhone, using the dishanywhere app.
First thing I do is unplug the tailgater and run a check switch. Then unplug the Wally, connect the tailgater, and plug the Wally back in. This time it asks for my state, and I figure I’ve won. It runs through the check switch without issues but hangs at aquiring signal. So I move the tailgater, get it higher off the ground, quadruple check levelness, and the handle is pointed north. But it was of no use, the Wally was simply refusing to acquire a signal.
During one of the 200 test installions, I’m finally able to select satellites from the drop down menu. 110 was 44, 119 was 42, and 129 was hovering just under 30. So I know it is seeing all three satellites, but for whatever reason, refusing to get out of the aquire signal step. With nothing else to try, I decide I may as well take the dome off the tailgater. After taking it off, I run the switch test, and despite its 3 years of age, it runs flawlessly. 180 clockwise, then 360 counter, back to 110, after zeroing in on 110, moved to 119, finally to 129, and then the acquire signal pops up, where yet again it hangs and for the 300th time informs me I might have some blockage.
With nothing else to try, and since two hours had past, I figured factory reset was my last hope. And for the last time it ran through the check switch flawlessly, got to acquire signal stage, and the screen went black and I could kind of make out the outlines of the progress box, but it was clear the Wally won the fight, and in order to prevent a total meltdown, which would have landed $600 worth of electronics into the lake, I accepted defeat. I ended up watching the race on my 5 inch iPhone, using the dishanywhere app.
