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kzspree320's avatar
kzspree320
Explorer
Jul 29, 2015

Directv and the new King Quest satellite antenna

As you may know, it takes a large manual Slimline satellite antenna to get Directv in HD if you have a fiver and want a portable antenna. We wanted a small automatic antenna for Directv. A couple of months ago about the only choice was the Winegard Carryout G2. King, the maker of the Tailgater, came out with a new automatic antenna a couple of months ago called the "King Quest". I bought one yesterday. There are very few reviews on it since it is new so I thought I would help the next guy out with his research.


The King Quest, like the G2, can only lock onto one satellite at a time. Based on Amazon pricing, it is about $50 less than the black G2 (our other option). The King King Quest will not get satellite 119, where many cities get their local channels, without a $90 extra controller. We seldom camp within our local Directv spot beam area, so we will NOT be buying this extra controller that will allow you to get Directv satellite 119 and the Dish and Bell satellites.

A major advantage (in my opinion) of the King Quest is that it only has one coax cable that connects to the antenna. The G2 has the coax plus a 12V power cord. The power to the King Quest antenna goes down the one coax cable from a "power injector" connected to the single coax cable and the receiver. If you want more information, go to the King website and look at the quick start instructions. The connection is extremely easy. If not for one issue, total time from start to finish would only be about 5 minutes.

King says to connect the coax from the antenna directly to the power injector (which is connect to 120 V power by the receiver). Since I have a fairly new fiver with a specific input for satellite (which is separate from the cable TV input), I tried connecting to the fiver satellite port and then from the satellite port in the cabinet to the power injector. Either there is a problem with the satellite ports/cabling in my fiver or the short coax cable I had on hand. Either way I could not make it work.

After about one frustrating hour, I decided to run the coax from the antenna in through the slide out and directly to the power injector. It worked great. I was watching Directv within a couple of minutes. There is only about a one foot run of coax that can be seen, so it's not a major problem to run the coax directly to the power injector next to the receiver for us. That could be an issue for others.

I like the fact that the antenna power goes down the one coax cable, but bypassing your RV satellite connections and running straight to the supplied power injector may be an issue for some people. Losing the extra power cable that the G2 has was worth the trade off to me.

I am happy with the purchase. Very easy if you connect the antenna coax straight into the power injector like the instructions say. I hope this helps others to understand more about the King Quest. Keith

6 Replies

  • I forgot to add one thing. The King instructions specifically say to plug directly into the power injector. I think it would have given the option to plug into RV if that was acceptable. I think King's instructions are to plug directly into the power injector for a specific reason due to the way the antenna motors are powered. This is just my opinion.
  • King Controls wrote:
    kzspree320 wrote:

    After about one frustrating hour, I decided to run the coax from the antenna in through the slide out and directly to the power injector. It worked great. I was watching Directv within a couple of minutes. There is only about a one foot run of coax that can be seen, so it's not a major problem to run the coax directly to the power injector next to the receiver for us. That could be an issue for others.

    I like the fact that the antenna power goes down the one coax cable, but bypassing your RV satellite connections and running straight to the supplied power injector may be an issue for some people.



    Keith,

    It is likely there is an issue with the coax running through your coach or it may not be rated for satellite TV.

    Chris


    It's supposed to be rated for satellite. I think you have to plug directly into the power injector because King uses the "conductive outer shielding of the coax" to run the voltage to run the motors powering it. I would be interested if anyone can plug directly into the satellite input on their RV and have it work. I doubt it the way I think the voltage is transmitted. Please let me know if you try it and it can work. Thanks.
  • kzspree320 wrote:

    After about one frustrating hour, I decided to run the coax from the antenna in through the slide out and directly to the power injector. It worked great. I was watching Directv within a couple of minutes. There is only about a one foot run of coax that can be seen, so it's not a major problem to run the coax directly to the power injector next to the receiver for us. That could be an issue for others.

    I like the fact that the antenna power goes down the one coax cable, but bypassing your RV satellite connections and running straight to the supplied power injector may be an issue for some people.



    Keith,

    It is likely there is an issue with the coax running through your coach or it may not be rated for satellite TV.

    Chris
  • kzspree320 wrote:
    The SD picture from the King Quest was better than I thought it would be on my 42" TV. Not HD but very good for SD. Good trade off for us.


    The SD picture on DirecTV doesn't depend at all on what you use as a dish. It will always be 480i. It is a pretty decent picture, even though it isn't HD.
  • I was leaning toward the large manual Slimline, but the wife talked me out of it due to the space considerations. She was also probably thinking she would not have to deal with a frustrated husband if I had trouble manually finding the satellite. The SD picture from the King Quest was better than I thought it would be on my 42" TV. Not HD but very good for SD. Good trade off for us.
  • If a portable automatic dish ever comes out for DirecTV HD I will buy one, but in the mean time I'll stick with my Slimline dish and tripod.