In one embodiment, a distributed antenna system comprises: at least one master unit; at least one remote antenna unit communicatively coupled via a switch to the master unit by a primary cable and a secondary cable both coupled to the switch, the remote antenna unit comprising a compensating link check module that outputs a control signal to the switch, wherein the switch selects between the primary and secondary cable in response to the control signal; wherein the compensating link check module controls the switch to momentarily select the secondary cable to perform a link check during which the remote unit measures a quality metric of a downlink signal received via the secondary cable; and upon initiation of the link check, the compensating link check module adjusts an attenuation of the downlink signal received on the secondary cable by loading calibration settings for the secondary cable into a compensation attenuator.