Thanks guys, a whole lot of that shot right over my head, but thanks. First off, there's nothing near in the way of the direction my dish is facing. One other thing, I did the 'check switches' thing in the installation menu while I was having this problem, and the second of the four options was all X's (1 odd, or something), though I have no idea what this means...or what these 'switches' even are....
Water intrusion seems like a likely bet to me, as I live in New England, and most of the wiring is encased in ice, or at least covered in snow. I went up on my roof earlier tonight and pulled up the wiring (dual thick cables fused together, if that means anything) out of the snow and knocked some of the ice off the wiring, and all around kicked stuff around (that's how I'm used to fixing most electronics). At first this killed most all of the channels, and the last three of the four switches were X's in the 'check switches' test, but I went up and tinkered around for a bit more, and now at last everything is working. Sort of. Some channels are cracking and phasing out of signal now and then, but better then before.
But one thing is that after running 'check switches' test again, I get all X's on the last two options. But everything is mostly working, so I don't know.
If anyone can draw any kind of explanation out of this mess of information, I'd be very appreciative. I really want to know what's going on and what I should do to make things better. Thanks again.