Earlier this year, DISH began an effort to convert most of its satellite TV signals from QPSK encoding to a new 8PSK format. The new signals allow more content to be streamed through the same bandwidth and provide greater utilization of satellites, although these signals cannot be decoded by many mobile satellite antennas or the older DISH Network satellite receivers including models 301, 2800, 3700, 3900, 4900, 1000/1500, 3000/3500, 4000/4500, 5000/5500, 501, 508, 510 receivers.
Since 1998, KING has manufactured a variety of mobile satellite antennas using several different proprietary methods of finding and identifying satellite signals. Some of these models relied on the QPSK signal in order to identify satellites and will be affected by these changes from DISH. Other models manufactured by KING either do not rely on this type of information to lock-on and identify the satellites, or they were designed with a special tuner that has the ability to identify the 8PSK signals from DISH and therefore are not affected by these changes. We expect that DISH will continue to transmit QPSK encoded signals from at least a single transponder on each DISH satellite for some time, so most KING satellite antennas that rely on that signal can be programmed to look for the remaining QPSK signals.
A historical list of KING satellite antenna models and the related impact of this change on each model is listed below:
KING-DOME
9700/9702/9702-LP/9630/9630-LP
*Unaffected by DISH transition to 8PSK
9704/9704-LP
*S/N #611325 or lower requires software re-programming with KING #1844 dealer installation & diagnostic tool (higher S/N already use 8PSK tuner and are not affected)
9754/9754-LP
*S/N #702321 or lower requires software re-programming with KING #1844 dealer installation & diagnostic tool (higher S/N already use 8PSK tuner and are not affected)
KD2200
*S/N #B06292 or lower requires software re-programming with KING #1844 dealer installation & diagnostic tool (higher S/N already use 8PSK tuner and are not affected)
KD3200
*S/N #C05888 or lower requires software re-programming with KING #1844 dealer installation & diagnostic tool (higher S/N already use 8PSK tuner and are not affected)
KD2000
*Unaffected by DISH transition to 8PSK, already uses 8PSK tuner
KD3000
*Unaffected by DISH transition to 8PSK, already uses 8PSK tuner
TRAC-KING
9760/9762/9762-LP
*S/N #370864 and higher may be re-programed from end user controller to track active QPSK transponder on satellites 110/119/129. Additional support for the Trac-King model antennas is no longer available.
VUQUBE
VQ1000/VQV10
*Unaffected by DISH transition to 8PSK
VQ2000
*S/N #106-4989 or lower requires software re-programming with KING #1844 dealer installation & diagnostic tool or upgrade to 8PSK tuner (higher S/N use 8PSK tuner and are not affected)
VQ3000
*S/N #107-1526 or lower requires software re-programming with KING #1844 dealer installation & diagnostic tool or upgrade to 8PSK tuner (higher S/N use 8PSK tuner and are not affected)
VQV20
*S/N #104-1186 or lower requires software re-programming with KING #1844 dealer installation & diagnostic tool or upgrade to 8PSK tuner (higher S/N use 8PSK tuner and are not affected)
VQV30
*S/N #105-1418 or lower requires software re-programming with KING #1844 dealer installation & diagnostic tool or upgrade to 8PSK tuner (higher S/N use 8PSK tuner and are not affected)
FLEX/ROVER
VQ2100
Models built prior to 1/6/15 require USB thumb drive software update (contact KING)
KD1500
Models built prior to 12/22/14 require USB thumb drive software update (contact KING)
TAILGATER/RELAY
VQ2500/KD5500
*Unaffected by DISH transition to 8PSK
KING QUEST
VQ4100
Models built prior to 4/10/15 require USB thumb drive software update (contact KING)
KING TAILGATER
VQ4500
*Unaffected by DISH transition to 8PSK
For additional information, please contact KINGโs customer service department at (952) 922-6889 extension 173.