What is a critical procedure to follow if RAWS telemetry fails?

Conducting a field inspection of antennas and connections is essential when RAWS telemetry fails because this step directly addresses the potential physical causes of telemetry issues. A failure in telemetry could be due to poor signal quality, which can result from damaged antennas, loose connections, or environmental factors affecting the hardware. By performing a field inspection, technicians are able to visually and physically assess the equipment to identify any issues that might disrupt the communication signal. This proactive approach helps ensure that any faults can be rectified swiftly, thus restoring telemetry functionality efficiently.

Other choices, while they might seem relevant, do not directly address the immediate need to diagnose the cause of the telemetry failure. Rebooting the system remotely might help in certain scenarios, but if the issue is hardware-related, that action is unlikely to resolve the underlying problem. Updating software may improve performance in the long run, but it does not solve an immediate hardware communication failure. Ignoring the issue until scheduled maintenance could result in prolonged downtime and may exacerbate the problem if it is not addressed promptly.