How "bout them apples...Like I tell my students, "ya got tenacity". Good work.
Izzy one thing, when you do run into a problem with these machines whether it be Hardware, firmware or software, remember that there is a reason for a malfunction or failure, the good troubleshooter will always want to find the "Why" and not just to "fix" it.
I understand people wanting the machine to operate correctly, and in short order, but remember a few things, first, electronic machines fail for a reason or reasons.
Whether it be too much current flow, incorrect low or high potential of difference(voltage), a undesirable change in a resistive value, a mechanical breakdown or another million reasons.
When I teach class I use alote of things that have happened to me, or things I have seen, a quick example..
A short microwave hop that exhibited great attenuation about the same time of day here in Phoenix AZ, it was monsoon season. My boss @ the time and I pretty much designed and built the whole hop, it was a CATV system..Downlik and distribution from the head-end, TX and RV, Dishes, alignment and fired it up...
A year or so later my boss found another job, so I was assigned chief enginner..
Enter the nightmare.....
I could not to save my life as to why this was happinging,
the signal loss... My Co. called in big hotshot microwave engineers and the like, they got back on their airplanes scratching their heads as they took off. My boss was on my back, the heat was getting hot..I went to sleep every night with that problem on my mind...had nightmares ect....we had a customer base of appx. 750,000 paying customers, even though this hop was a small % of the whole..
Every night I would have nightmares of this, they were bad dreams indeed...
One night, about 3 weeks into this living horror film, I fell asleep....I dreamed I was a bird flying and landed on the ridged feed horn at the point of convergance, the focal point of the R.F..... I woke up, got dressed, hopped in the Co. truck, drove to the headend, Put on my climbing belt, climbed up 130 ft. tied off, unhooked the feedhorn, Titlted it upward above my eye and water green slime and junk poured out onto my face!
Replaced the feed horn, (I had a new spare), Problem was fixed.....
My former boss had placed the metal feed horn into a vice to slightly straighing it, causing a very small micro crack that allowed moisture build up. After several years of high humidity during the monsoon season to cause moisture. It would "Fog" up inside when the temp and humity hit that "sweet spot"....It lasted 3 or 4 hours a day, during peak viewing time, then "cleared up". An intermittent, the troubleshooters nightmare....
Alex
Sorry for the off subject...
