SWM and dish alignment question

[DoctorCAD]

I have had Direct for the past year, and rarely ever lost service. Any time I did lose it, it was due to a bad storm. A few months ago, we had a really bad wind storm come through here and afterward I noticed that I would lose signal far too often. I did the self-test and got the "dish needs aligned" error.

I called Direct and scheduled a fix date. The tech came and looked at my signal strength numbers (he was training a new guy, so he was explaining everything as he went along) and saw that some of them were dancing between 1 to 4 points difference (eg. signal strength of 85 then 82 then 87 then...). He told the new guy that the dancing numbers was an indication of the SWM changing voltage between 18 and 12 to switch transponders. He also told the new guy that it also meant that I had the SWM power supply plugged into a surge protector.

He unplugged it and put it directly into the wall, then proceeded to re-align my dish. He found that one of the struts on the roof mount was a little loose, and that allowed the dish to move in the windstorm. Problem solved...or so I thought.

Now, instead of no sat signal when I lose the signal (and I still lose it just as much), I get a SWM not found error.

Could the SWM be bad and be a coincidence that it happened just as the plug was moved?

Any other ideas?

I did replug it into the surge protector, as I work for the company that makes them and know I have a good one.

 

[harshness]

Since you've already paid for it, you need to keep calling until they fix the problem.

 

[jcrandall]

Unplug everything (all receivers and SWM) for about 5 min to reset everything. Then power just one receiver and the SWM. If your signal is still out of wack, they didn't reaim it right (or the LNB is bad). What are the numbers you are seeing on 101, 99c, and 103ca?

 

[DoctorCAD]

All my numbers are high, most are in the mid to upper 90's.

101

1-8 98 99 95 99 95 100 96 100
9-16 96 100 95 99 96 100 96 100
17-24 97 0 96 97 07 100 98 100
25-32 98 97 98 0 100 100 98 100

99 (c)

1-8 95 95 93 94 92 91 92 91
9-16 92 91 93 91 95 93 NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

103 (ca)

1-8 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
9-16 97 95 96 95 92 95 95
17-24 95 95 84 95 95 94 96 95
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

 

[Jimbo]

I have had Direct for the past year, and rarely ever lost service. Any time I did lose it, it was due to a bad storm. A few months ago, we had a really bad wind storm come through here and afterward I noticed that I would lose signal far too often. I did the self-test and got the "dish needs aligned" error.

I called Direct and scheduled a fix date. The tech came and looked at my signal strength numbers (he was training a new guy, so he was explaining everything as he went along) and saw that some of them were dancing between 1 to 4 points difference (eg. signal strength of 85 then 82 then 87 then...). He told the new guy that the dancing numbers was an indication of the SWM changing voltage between 18 and 12 to switch transponders. He also told the new guy that it also meant that I had the SWM power supply plugged into a surge protector.

He unplugged it and put it directly into the wall, then proceeded to re-align my dish. He found that one of the struts on the roof mount was a little loose, and that allowed the dish to move in the windstorm. Problem solved...or so I thought.

Now, instead of no sat signal when I lose the signal (and I still lose it just as much), I get a SWM not found error.

Could the SWM be bad and be a coincidence that it happened just as the plug was moved?

Any other ideas?

I did replug it into the surge protector, as I work for the company that makes them and know I have a good one.

I'm curious what Surge Protectors your using and recommend .... within reasonable price ranges. We've had an ongoing discussion about Surge Protectors and UPS's

 

[DoctorCAD]

I'm curious what Surge Protectors your using and recommend .... within reasonable price ranges. We've had an ongoing discussion about Surge Protectors and UPS's

Well, I recommend the Eaton brand, but thats because I work there.

I only paid $20 for it through our in-house store. I have no idea what they retail for.