Dread intermittent?
Obv you all have the digital workings nailed, as I do not. Absence of log data though -?- dunno if that is a clue to the nature of these drops. An electronic failure doesn't care about code running, or even microcode, for that matter (?)
Except that the system itself IS a kinda ~digital storage scope.. this would sound like a pesky case for which you'd like to borrow someone's fancy storage scope. Set to trigger appropriately: you get to see *earlier* events and post- ones, store same across a few drops; look for a pattern.
(Alas, none of my scopes would help; most-all analog. The 7854 / 400-600 MHz lab. mainframe, while analog (but with some digital storage..) is just too big to ship around; digital writing-rate might be too slow, even if a friendly Lear Jet were available. Then you'd have to learn how to use the sucker. :(
Given price of a box, nobody in right mind would try to bench check this thing down to an IC. (Well, except for a few people I know who like to Know - and who Believe in causality, in a ~Godly way.)
Seems it would be nice to be able to borrow a known good box (or swap for a few days.)
Interesting comment though, on duelling cable cutters/splicers; I suppose that yours is a known fresh one. I've seen on a spectrum analyzer what such brutality does to a VSWR.. and you are IN radioland with pulse lectronics; where delta functions roam the theoretical mind. (Pulses with zero-rise-time, that is == delta function)
Luck; it's amazing the layered complexity in consumerland du jour.
Ashton
(Who needs to conjure a higher mast, new Yagi + fresh amp.. to get less snow on fav PBS channel from San Jose ~ 90ish miles South. (They have Extras, not on usual PBS sta.) Still waiting for: cable ya gets to choose your Own pieces from - under $40/mo. Ain't that what Democracy is all about? I expect I'll wait a long time.)