A storm years ago pulled down my whole satellite dish installation, pole and all, so it's definitely possible.
The Hughesnet reps on this site may have already gone home, but they're usually here 9-5-ish M-F, so you should hear something tomorrow or Wednesday.
How odd. I've never heard of a radio (LNB) coming off during a storm, but anything's possible, and it is only held on by one screw. To be honest, had I seen that, my first thought would have been that someone stole it.
Glad they're able to get out soon to fix it. 🙂
Well... Depending on what part of the country you live in... Theft of such things can be high if the local drug head knows those things sell for $40 to $80 on ebay. It's highly unlikely that both the cable and screw came loose and the radio went flying away. I mean, it is a chunky little unit, so you would have almost needed a tornado to get rid of it. Was the dish there already when you moved in? Possible the previous tennant needed to snag their radio and did so? I suggest keeping an eye on your property.
Around here they like to target HVAC units and strip the copper from the aluminum, then take it in for recycling. Got bad enough that now you cant even recycle your unit unless you are a contractor or have a reciept and paperwork from a contractor releasing the unit to you for disposal. Only took me an hour to seperate the copper from aluminum when I replaced ours, and got about $300, but took two trips because I never knew they passed such a law.
I was wondering about that, as in thieves selling them. Though anything's possible, and screws coming loose and even falling out is far from unheard of, coax cable is some strong stuff, and it would take a significant force to break it, and force you would think would damage the dish far before the radio, with it having so much surface area. And with the cable looking like it had been cut, that's another indicator.
I was thinking about the serial number, though. Doesn't that automatically load into the modem info, and therefore, the account/system, or is that something that's entered manually?
With the previous tenants having it installed not long before you were there, that's probably what happened, as in they took it to return it, as with a lease one of the things that needs to be returned is the radio, or they get charged a significant amount for it.
But sheesh. How rude! They could have at least been polite and talked to you about it.