Winegard PL-7000 Dish Playmaker Portable Antenna

*** UPDATE*** I’ve had the Playmaker for about two months now. With the Tailgater, any thick clouds would cause a complete outage. Sometimes i would lose coverage for no reason whatsoever. With the Playmaker, i have had perfect coverage even in moderate snow and rain. I haven’t seen heavy rain yet. Very happy so far. *** I bought this to replace a Tailgater 2 that gave up on me. So far this antenna is much better than the tailgater. It does make a little more noise during setup, but after that it’s quiet. In fact, I have it sitting on top of my bedroom slide. The signal is about 40% to 50% higher than the tailgater so I’m not having issues with low or no signal EXCEPT when I haven’t had it on in a while. When I turn on the receiver after it being idle for several hours, I am sometimes greeted with “Complete signal loss”. This is just an anomaly though because as soon as I change the channel and turn it back to the original channel, it works fine. This may be a receiver issue.

After setting up and testing the system in my driveway multiple times I was very pleased with this purchase. With the first camping trip the satellite worked well for two days. On the third day it would not work at all… I kept getting an on screen message “cannot locate signal, check all connections and call Dish.” After several calls to Dish and checking all connections, re-booting several times I finally gave up and waited until returning home. I made several attempts to get through to Winegard and once I finally got through the tech person said to check the voltage at both the receiver and dish ends of the coax. I was showing a range of 13 to 19 volts and the system would work about half the time. I strongly suspect a bad receiver. The Winegard tech said I was covered under the two year warranty but since the problem was intermittent if I were to return the unit to the factory they may or may not be able to fix the problem unless they could duplicate the same issue I was having at home. After replacing my new coax cable with another new coax cable when I test the system I get the “cannot locate signal” message immediately followed by the dish working correctly then flashing back to the “cannot locate” message and then back to programming. Quite frankly, having spent $300 for a system that works intermittently and cannot get decent customer service from either Dish or Winegard I would not recommend buying this product with the Wally receiver. If you do buy, make sure everything is working correctly BEFORE the 30 day Amazon return window closes.

UPDATE 6-10-2018
Upgraded to three stars since my problems seem to be resolved. I called Dish Customer Service and finally connected with a very capable young man who spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone with me and checked what seemed to be almost every test in the book. The software was seriously out of date and one glitch is the button labelled “Upgrade my Software” doesn’t work and only tells you that whatever version you have is already current and up to date… Wrong!! As of 6-9-2018 the current software version is U438. There are 3 ways to update: 1.) if you are already a Dish customer take the receiver inside and hook it up to your home satellite wiring. The receiver will update at 1 AM or so automatically. 2.) Clear the memory by unplugging the receiver, disconnect the coax to the dish and plug the receiver back in to reboot through the whole process. Of course the dish won’t find anything because the coax is disconnected but the memory will be cleared. Then connect the coax back to the dish and reboot. After the reboot, and assuming you are receiving something, use the remote to turn off power to the receiver which puts it into standby mode where you will watch the dancing “tips” square. After a couple of minutes the receiver will begin a software download and install. 3.) As in step #1, if you are not a home Dish customer, leave the system plugged in overnight for the automatic update and download. To see what version software you have now, and to confirm if anything has changed, push the Home button on the remote three times and look for the software version in the middle of the page. If you have U438 (now U802 as of July 8, 2019) you will be current.
Since I am by no means an expert about any of this I urge you to call Dish technical support and have them walk you through everything. Don’t waste your time with Winegard. I upgraded to 3 stars because I am willing to give Dish technical support 5 stars but I am not 100% sure that the software is perfect and may still have future issues. Overall this process should be automatic but at least I have learned there are answers to our problems with the Wally. My confidence is restored.
UPDATE 9-4-2018
My system is slowly improving with time. The software has updated a little but still uses the U438 designation. The reboot takes about 10 minutes or less now however the guide doesn’t always download and I have to repeat the process occasionally. In the diagnostics area the “Upgrade my Software” button now actually works where the system will reboot on its own and try to find anything current. I am still having problems getting the complete loss of signal screen for one second followed by programming for one second then the signal loss screen then programming which flashes back and forth like a neon sign. I found that if I quickly use the channel up button to change channels when the screen flashes to the program for one second the receiver will change to that channel. When I then use the channel down button everything seems to work OK after that. As Dish will tell you on their website if you do not use the Wally receiver for two weeks or so the receiver goes into sleep mode and you will not receive programming until the receiver is reauthorized. One great improvement is to download the MY DISH app to your phone because you can now ‘wake up’ the receiver without having to make a phone call or go online to the website. In the app scroll to the bottom to find the Dish Outdoors tab, find and click the reauthorize button… works like magic!
UPDATE 10-20-2018
Three more week long trips and finally this system is working reliably. Works well using my generator or solar powered inverter and on-board batteries. I am still getting the flashing ‘no signal’ message followed by a working program but I simply push the channel up button to change channel and then come back to my original channel and all is working well. Start-up takes about 8 minutes or so. My only wish at this point is that Dish would include a memory for the receiver so once power is disconnected the receiver and dish would remember the last setting if nothing has changed in the interim. Another useful option would be to offer this system in 12 volt only so the inverter would not be necessary.

UPDATE: July 8, 2019
After being in storage for six months I reactivated my Wally receiver on the Dish website and turned on the system. Once the boot had completed the first thing I did was go into the diagnostic/tools area and hit the button labeled “Upgrade my Software”. It promptly told me my current version of U448 from last December was up-to-date and would not reboot and look for anything newer. To clear the memory I then unplugged the receiver, disconnected the coax and plugged the receiver back in. As expected the process only went as far as giving me a message to “check all connections”. USING THE REMOTE I then turned off the Wally receiver, re-connected the coax to the dish and waited while watching the ‘dancing tips’ square… After about 5 minutes the receiver started a new download since the memory had been cleared. In all it took about 20 – 30 minutes and upgraded everything. Do NOT turn off the power or unplug while upgrading. When the screen returned back to the dancing ‘tips’ square I then turned the system back on and checked the software version number: it is now current at U802.
9/14/2019
Repeated the exact same procedure as listed above, current software version is U806. Dish works perfect.

I purchased this to replace my Winegard G2 which was still working OK after 7years. This Playmaker is a little smaller and I needed a unit that will fit in my Winnebago View storage bins. This was perfect. I did not think that this would perform as well as my old G2 but was surprised when testing it out. It had more receiving power than my old G2 and signal strength was high on all the Dish Satellites. Over 40 on all 3 birds. I am using a Wally Receiver due to small space in my new Winnebago View.
I had planned to buy a G2+ but cost was a little higher than I wanted to spend. The G2+ needs a power inserter and more AC power. The Playmaker powers from the Receiver using High Quality Coax that came with the Playmaker. I am thinking about mounting it on the Roof. I can use the old G2 when trees block the signal. The G2 requires a 12v supply and 2 cables so a little extra setup. The Playmaker gets the signal very fast and much faster than the G2 which sometimes takes a very long time to get setup I think the new Playmaker has better electronics or something.