It sounds like you are on the wrong Dish plan. You should be on the pay-as-you-go plan. There is no limit to how long you can be idle. You simply call Dish, tell them to turn on the service for a month or 2 and at the end of that period it just ends. Do it again next month or in 6 months and it's all the same.
When the receivers have been off line for more than a month the receiver itself shuts itself down and getting them reactivated can be problematic (as you have discovered). I suggest using the 2 receiver option for the X2 so that it points to the 72.7 satellite. This will allow the receiver to get the programming it needs. If you use the WA satellites, the antenna may or may not be locked onto the 119 satellite where the activation signal usually comes from so it sometimes takes changing channels on the receiver to something like Food Network to get the signal the receiver is looking for. The signal may also be on 129 these days (not sure) but you absolutely want to make sure the receiver is not tuned to a local Network TV channel but rather something like Food, ESPN, CH 100 (always active when pointed correctly), Weather or some cable type channel.
