522/Check Switch

[CopyChief]

I'm wondering if someone can shed some light on a problem I encountered last night.

It was raining lightly, but it wasn't a thunderstorm -- although there were some to the north of the area. I lost the signal on all channels, and then got the dreaded pop-up box that told me there was something wrong with my switch. As directed I ran a "check switch" and everything came back.

It happened again about five minutes later (still raining lightly). When I first went to the point dish screen, the signal was very low, under 60. Then the signal dropped entirely, and when I ran a check switch it told me there was something wrong with the switch.

I tried the "check switch" again, and the signal came back -- it went from 50 then to around 100. By this time it was raining very hard, and it was getting darker. But everything worked great.

Today, it's clear -- and everything is still A-OK.

Is the rain really a factor here? It's never been a problem before (I've had this setup for about eight months, and survived the spring with almost no dropouts).

Or is my switch going out and I need to call SBC/Dish for a new one?

Thanks! -Rich

[langlin]

It depends on the exact location of the densest part (the most suspended rain drops) of the rain cloud, if that densest part is exactly between your dish and the satellite, then and only then will you lose signal, it doesn't matter if it is raining at your house or not.

[CopyChief]

Thanks. I've lost the signal before in big thunderstorms (of course), but it has never asked me to run a "check switch." Is this just due to system updates (I know they've changed a lot in the software for troubleshooting) or do you think there's something else going on?

[the_bear]

I used to have a similar problem that I think was ice getting around the switch itself. I put a piece of packing tape over the seam in the LNB, and have not had the problem since.

[boba]

What type of switch do you have?