If you're not hearing the antenna buzzing and clicking as it attempts to locate the satellites, there's something wrong with it. It could be it's not getting power through the cord. If you can find another receiver to test it with a different (short) cord right at the dish, you'll have eliminated a lot of troubleshooting steps.
While I was troubleshooting mine (based on information I got in emails from Winegard's tech support), I had the cover off and testing for voltage on the circuit boards. They will guide you through it.