Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I called DirecTV, and I should be able to go anywhere with this setup.
Based on input from other forums, one possibility is that as I'm starting the receiver up, it's trying to bring in the last channel used. Local channels are pulled in from "spot beams" not the "main beam" from sat 101. If I'm out of my local area, I won't be able to pick up the "spot beam".
So the suggestion is to tune to a national channel like CNN before traveling and then as the receiver starts up it should be able to find this. Just a theory, haven't confirmed it yet.
Thanks,
John
