Here is what I've learned,
1. Someone other than me had gone up to the roof and replaced the DP twin with two DP singles, which explains why I couldn't induce either line to toggle, but which is not causing my system malfunctions
2. On Jan 5, DISH shut off all the programming to this customer. Apparently, they have multiple accounts, in part because they now have over 15 receivers (19, actually). It seems that the school paid the annual invoice of about $2,500 for the main account, but then misinterpreted the monthly statement for the German channel, DISHt shut off everything. I persuaded them into giving this account a 10 day repreive while the accounts payable office here sorts everything out.
3. I now am using a brand new DP34 mulitswitch with three dedicated DP single LNBs. All perform well. But when I select and try to view a channel on 61.5, like 592, it says that a switch problem has been detected.
I have a theory. This place has eighteen receivers sourced by a DISHPro cascade, plus one legacy receiver hardwired to 121 legacy. I bet that the brilliant DISH software has surmised that since at least one receiver, the hardwired, German one, is getting signqls from 121, then it can instruct all the receivers to try to tune in their ethnic programming only from 121, and so the switch malfunction message was generated somehow from the fact that the switch cannot call for signals from 121.
So....
I just went up to the roof and taped what is supposed to be a DISH stacked linear LNB to the front of the FSS LNB, and it works, sort of.
The check switch says that it has found both polarities of all three satellites, but when I go into transponder test, I get zero signal strength on either the evens or on just the odds.
On one receiver, I can tune in 698. The screen says it says the signal has been lost and acquisition is in progress and to wait or change the channel, but then, it locks onto the programming, which is from 121 tr 4. When I go to signal test, it shows signal on all the evens but on none of the odds.
Then I change the channel to 675. The screen says the signal has been lost and acquisition is in progress, and to wait or change the channel, but the it locks onto the programming, which is from 121 Tr 5. When I go to signal test, it now shows signal strength on the odds but no signal on the evens.
I know what you're thinking. I must be using an FSS LNB. Well. here is how I excluded that possibility. I connected a second receiver to the DP34. I can now have one receiver tuned to 675 from tr 5 and its test shows signal on all the odds but none of the evens. Then I have the other receiver tuned to 698, which still works but its test function says that the evens are present but the odds are not.
So I now have a three satellite distribution trunk that can allow each receiver to select either polarity from any satellite, notwithstanding the perplexing signal test results. Now, I need to get my guide restored, as lots of channels have disappeared from the guide. Unfortunately, the hold time for DISH Commercial Services is infinite, and they don't even have background music to assure you that you have not been cut off.