Your location is never transmitted back to Dish from the receiver, no matter what is connected or turned on or not. You must personally contact Dish customer service via phone or chat to change your location to receive the local channels for that area. Dish just needs a valid address within the spot beam pattern to tell your receiver what channels it can receive. It doesn't even need to be your specific address, as long as it's within the pattern where you're located. The "locked on" requirement is so your receiver can receive the updated data it needs to allow you to see the channels in your program guide and select them for viewing.
