Well, I had the distinct pleasure of calling for tech support today. There was an older Dish Network receiver at the church that was gathering dust and the channels we wanted to see were finally back on the air, I thought I'd make another run at the receiver. After hooking it all up, the 'pointing dish' screen showed signal strength 0. After more troubleshooting, I also discovered that the Check Switch/View Switch screen showed no satellites or transponders.
Ah, a quick call to Dish Network. Well, they knew less than I did, and went through the process of walking me through the screen to point the dish. After a set of tests, the script directed them to either send a technician or to activate the receiver as an additional receiver on my personal account (NOT). She also stated that the receiver was deactivated and that the card was not the one for the receiver. She suggested I call the third satellite provider who originally activated the receiver. FWIW, the card, if it is not the correct one for the receiver, would show a screen that says that the card is invalid. So, reality is what one perceives. She sees what her system says, I see what the receiver says. We're likely both correct because she probably sees the card number that was likely sent out as a replacement.
Calling the original satellite company was no help either, because they could not activate the receiver (lifetime subscription) while the software was out of date (and the receiver is unable to see the satellites due to some issue I'm still working through).
Guess I'm going to have to drag out the spare dish and set it up on the driveway to check out this receiver.
