I'm having trouble in a school language lab in which I have seventeen DISH receivers connected to DISH Pro. There are five DP34s cascaded but that is NOT the cause of my present problem, nor does it contribute to it.
All of the receivers pass the transponder signal "strength" test for both polarities of each transponder from 119, 110 and 61.5. The "locked" indicator becomes green. But when I try to tune individual stations on 61.5, the system says that there is a multiswitch malfunction.
I pared down the system to just one SW34 with two receivers connected to it. SW34 input 1 gets typically -45dBm of 119 signal from a DISH DP500 twin. Input 2 gets about the same signal strength of 110 from the same DISH DP500 twin. Input 3 gets healthy 61.5 signal from a DP single.
I put a spectrum analyzer on temporary taps I installed on the output ports. Each time I select a channel, the spectrum analyzer shows that the receiver has indeed switched to the correct stacked signal and that the signal level is healthy (it is easy to visually identify each stack because certain spot beams are weak on 119 and 110 and some are missing on 61.5) But the receiver indicates that it has detected a switching problem and won't allow me to select from 61.5.
I tried then connecting one receiver directly to the DP 500 twin. Total length, under 300 feet, and signal levels measured by my spec analyzer at about -50dBm. The switch test said it "found" just 119 and it let me view a 119 promo channel. I would have figured that with that configuration, it would have also found 110. When I connected it directly to the other DISH twin port, it said it only found 110 and it let me view the 4XX horse racing channel, but it wouldn't let me view anything on 119.
Now, here is where it gets really strange. I connected another' brand new receiver directly to 61.5. I did the switch searches, (one was a 1-5 signal sourcecheck, the other was a 1 of 1 switch check) and it found 61.5, both polarities, with signal strength numbers in the range of 90% to 125%, locked. But it won't download the guide (I waited two hours).
I MAY have two separate problems here. The DISHPro 500 Twin may have defective internal satellite switching and is defaulting 119 to one port and 110 to the other ports, but maybe either the DP34 and the receiver are looking for some kind of "handshake" that it can't receive, telling it that it is in control of the output selection when it is not. With a dumb cascaded system, that might not matter,but with a "smart" system, it might. But I don't know what is going on at 61.5. With a new receiver, a healthy DISHPro single and hard, single receiver wiring, I don't know what I can't get passed "square one" with either receiver.
The 61.5 is the only problem that I have to resolve immediately, since the school is on vacation and there is just one professor making timed recordings of 592 (61.5, Tr 14). Can a guide be downloaded just from 61.5? What transponder is that guide sent on?
All of the receivers pass the transponder signal "strength" test for both polarities of each transponder from 119, 110 and 61.5. The "locked" indicator becomes green. But when I try to tune individual stations on 61.5, the system says that there is a multiswitch malfunction.
I pared down the system to just one SW34 with two receivers connected to it. SW34 input 1 gets typically -45dBm of 119 signal from a DISH DP500 twin. Input 2 gets about the same signal strength of 110 from the same DISH DP500 twin. Input 3 gets healthy 61.5 signal from a DP single.
I put a spectrum analyzer on temporary taps I installed on the output ports. Each time I select a channel, the spectrum analyzer shows that the receiver has indeed switched to the correct stacked signal and that the signal level is healthy (it is easy to visually identify each stack because certain spot beams are weak on 119 and 110 and some are missing on 61.5) But the receiver indicates that it has detected a switching problem and won't allow me to select from 61.5.
I tried then connecting one receiver directly to the DP 500 twin. Total length, under 300 feet, and signal levels measured by my spec analyzer at about -50dBm. The switch test said it "found" just 119 and it let me view a 119 promo channel. I would have figured that with that configuration, it would have also found 110. When I connected it directly to the other DISH twin port, it said it only found 110 and it let me view the 4XX horse racing channel, but it wouldn't let me view anything on 119.
Now, here is where it gets really strange. I connected another' brand new receiver directly to 61.5. I did the switch searches, (one was a 1-5 signal sourcecheck, the other was a 1 of 1 switch check) and it found 61.5, both polarities, with signal strength numbers in the range of 90% to 125%, locked. But it won't download the guide (I waited two hours).
I MAY have two separate problems here. The DISHPro 500 Twin may have defective internal satellite switching and is defaulting 119 to one port and 110 to the other ports, but maybe either the DP34 and the receiver are looking for some kind of "handshake" that it can't receive, telling it that it is in control of the output selection when it is not. With a dumb cascaded system, that might not matter,but with a "smart" system, it might. But I don't know what is going on at 61.5. With a new receiver, a healthy DISHPro single and hard, single receiver wiring, I don't know what I can't get passed "square one" with either receiver.
The 61.5 is the only problem that I have to resolve immediately, since the school is on vacation and there is just one professor making timed recordings of 592 (61.5, Tr 14). Can a guide be downloaded just from 61.5? What transponder is that guide sent on?