We received word from John Deere that effective Jan 1, 2021, Starfire ITC GPS Receivers will no longer be able to receive the SF1 or SF2 corrections required for machines to Autotrac. ITC receivers will still be able to show coverage, document, and be used for sectional control (in some cases) using the WAAS signal. This was not a decision made by John Deere or INMARSAT (the company that provides the bandwidth for our SF1 and SF2 correction signals). This change is happening because of a government satellite update where new satellites broadcasting the L5 signal are replacing the older signals. The hardware inside an ITC receiver will not allow it to receive the newer data. Starfire 3000s and 6000s are not affected by this change.
The complete government document can be found here: See page 59 (Section 3.2.8) for more details.
If you still have an SF2 or RTK activation on an ITC receiver, John Deere has extended the transfer deadline again for you to transfer these activations to an SF3000 or SF6000 receiver. This deadline is quickly coming up on August 1st, 2018. Contact us today at 217-693-6209 if you have any questions about this transition.
Sloan Support Farmer Call Center
Unfortunately, we are in the same position as our customer’s and we currently have too many Starfire ITC receivers in stock, so we can no longer accept trades.
Sloan Support is written by the product support team at Sloan Implement Co., a 20 location John Deere dealer in Illinois and Wisconsin. Learn more at www.sloans.com
