Lost my local stations

[Joemac8]

This is my first visit and I am a novice when it comes to this stuff so please be patient with me. I have a Direct TV HR21-100 unit in my trailer. This is a receiver attached to my home account in Chicago. My trailer is parked and has been parked for a long time in Wisconsin. Until today, I received all of the stations that I receive at home including local stations. I especially like watching my local news.

I arrived at the trailer last night. I turned on the news (Ch 7) and a basketball game was on. I then switched to channel 5 news and , although the channel information appeared at the top, the station didn't come in. All I got was a message "Searching for signal on Satellite in 2..." and 771. I checked and found the same message on every channel for my local broadcasting except for channel 56 which still comes in fine. All other non-local channels come in normally.

I checked the signal strength and all were in the 90's. I reset the DVR and it was the same. I checked connections and all were tight. I called Direct TV and they told me shat I shouldn't receive a signal outside of my zip code. I told them I did and they said I shouldn't have.

Anyway, I have received these channels here for years and today I don't. It is cool and overcast, but not raining or storming. I do still receive one channel, Ch 56.

Any ideas on what I can do to fix this?????


TIA, Joe

 

[JamesJ]

sounds like a spotbeam issue, where for example I like in akron and have a cabin in WV, during the summer due to either earth drift rotation who knows, I dont get my akron locals to come in due to them being on a spotbeam on the satellite. To me this sounds like your issue too. here is the Chicago spotbeam from our Maps link above, see if it isn't hitting or on a fringe area to your cabin.

 

[raoul5788]

to Satelliteguys Joe!

As James said, it's likely a spotbeam issue. Assuming you are talking about hd locals, did you try the sd channels? They should be available in Wisconsin since the spotbeam for the sd channels is much larger than the one for the hd channels.

 

[Joemac8]

JamesJ and Raoul you nailed it! I went to SD and once again receive my local stations. You have made me a very happy man. Thanks!

 

[raoul5788]

You are lucky to get the hd locals in Wisconsin even in good weather. The spotbeam isn't supposed to go that far. Count your blessings!