Hi,
I'm actually using Bell Expressvu from Canada here in New York and it's been working great for the last few years. (As far as I know, the hardware is the same as what Dish uses.) A few months ago, I replaced the multiswitch I was using because the old one was a bit flakey. I have a total of three receivers and I can only get one of the satellites (Nimiq 91) but, like I said, it all worked great.
Several weeks after installing the new multiswitch (Microroyal SW44A), I noticed a bit of weirdness. Some channels would claim to have no signal on one receiver, yet come in just fine on another. It seemed to move around: one day I could get just about everything on one receiver, then a few days later only half the channels while another receiver would start getting better reception. When I ran "Check Switch," sometimes only one of the two switch inputs would return results. Sometimes the "installed device" would even show the wrong model number.
I decided to check all of the connections on the multiswitch and disconnected everything (including power) and reconnected it. Voila! From that point on, I have been able to receive absolutely NOTHING. "Installed device" shows up as "Unknown" and nothing is ever returned when I run "Check Switch." I opened the SW44A up to see if everything was connected and it looked like the coax that supplies power wasn't touching on the inside so I bent the wire to make sure it did, thinking that would surely fix the problem. It didn't. In fact, there's no way to even know if power is going to the device as there are no lights or anything.
I climbed my roof to see if my dish was still there which it was and nothing seemed amiss. I live in a thick tree-covered area but the same leaves had been out in July while I was still getting signal, so I don't think this would account for a sudden drop to zero signal strength.
As a final test, I ran each of the satellite cables directly into the back of one of my receivers, just to make sure I was getting signal in the first place. To my surprise, I got nothing. It's as if every possible part of this system is malfunctioning at the same time. If the signal was there, bypassing the multiswitch should have shown me something. And if the signal WASN'T there, then I should be able to see the multiswitch from inside my house. I get the feeling I'm missing something obvious, but this is far from my field of expertise so I fear I may never figure it out.
Can anyone suggest some troubleshooting or ways of figuring out just where the problem is? Since the total loss of signal seems to come from the point where I disconnected the power and then reconnected it, I figure that must be related somehow. I just don't get why I can't see the satellite when I bypass the multiswitch if that's the case and I'm frustrated by not knowing if the multiswitch is getting any power.
Thanks for any help.
Ed
I'm actually using Bell Expressvu from Canada here in New York and it's been working great for the last few years. (As far as I know, the hardware is the same as what Dish uses.) A few months ago, I replaced the multiswitch I was using because the old one was a bit flakey. I have a total of three receivers and I can only get one of the satellites (Nimiq 91) but, like I said, it all worked great.
Several weeks after installing the new multiswitch (Microroyal SW44A), I noticed a bit of weirdness. Some channels would claim to have no signal on one receiver, yet come in just fine on another. It seemed to move around: one day I could get just about everything on one receiver, then a few days later only half the channels while another receiver would start getting better reception. When I ran "Check Switch," sometimes only one of the two switch inputs would return results. Sometimes the "installed device" would even show the wrong model number.
I decided to check all of the connections on the multiswitch and disconnected everything (including power) and reconnected it. Voila! From that point on, I have been able to receive absolutely NOTHING. "Installed device" shows up as "Unknown" and nothing is ever returned when I run "Check Switch." I opened the SW44A up to see if everything was connected and it looked like the coax that supplies power wasn't touching on the inside so I bent the wire to make sure it did, thinking that would surely fix the problem. It didn't. In fact, there's no way to even know if power is going to the device as there are no lights or anything.
I climbed my roof to see if my dish was still there which it was and nothing seemed amiss. I live in a thick tree-covered area but the same leaves had been out in July while I was still getting signal, so I don't think this would account for a sudden drop to zero signal strength.
As a final test, I ran each of the satellite cables directly into the back of one of my receivers, just to make sure I was getting signal in the first place. To my surprise, I got nothing. It's as if every possible part of this system is malfunctioning at the same time. If the signal was there, bypassing the multiswitch should have shown me something. And if the signal WASN'T there, then I should be able to see the multiswitch from inside my house. I get the feeling I'm missing something obvious, but this is far from my field of expertise so I fear I may never figure it out.
Can anyone suggest some troubleshooting or ways of figuring out just where the problem is? Since the total loss of signal seems to come from the point where I disconnected the power and then reconnected it, I figure that must be related somehow. I just don't get why I can't see the satellite when I bypass the multiswitch if that's the case and I'm frustrated by not knowing if the multiswitch is getting any power.
Thanks for any help.
Ed
