Wish I new the answer for you Larry? My Pansat usually sits on White Springs when it's turned off, but not always. About once a week (or so), when I cut the Pansat on, it shows signal strength and picture for a brief second and then disappears, and nothing. A few times I impatiently used the switch on the back of the Pansat for a reset (reboot). Eventually I noticed it (the dish) was moving and I watched it. It went to what looked like TS (true south) and then returned to IA7 and White Springs. I have no Idea why it does this? I'm just glad it only does it about once a week. When it does this, it's not a reboot, just a reset. If it rebooted, it would show "b70" on the front of the receiver, which it doesn't do.
I have noticed what you're talking about on AMC6, with the channel from California. Sometimes it will be right on it, but mostly I have to leave it on it for a few seconds or longer, and it comes in. That Law Enforcement channel on G11 (I think) does this too. I guess that sometimes it just takes a little longer for digital to read the message in the codecs to decypher the message so we can get a picture and sound. But I don'r know?
Al