DirecTV and out-of-market local channels revisted

[feeltolearn]

I'm new to the forum and my question is mostly about spot beams and how to find out San Antonio's radius for local channels. My parents want DTV but they cannot get local channels at their home, which is approximately 120 from San Antonio. The local channels they currently get in the cable package is from San Antonio, if that means anything. I'd be appreciative if someone can fill me in on the details.

[IminMs]

This may give some info
http://www.scottandmichelle.net/scott/dtv.html

[feeltolearn]

Thank you.

[rlj5242]

And that site is very conservative on their spot beam estimates. Memphis locals are on the 101 satellite position, transponder 4. At my in-law's house 200 miles away, transponder 4 still has a signal strength in the high 80's. According to the map, their house is outside of the Memphis spot beam.

-Robert

[Jim Abbett]

So for a "dummy"....what does all of this mean?

[feeltolearn]

I'm still trying to figure that out, Jim. I don't know how to figure out the radius (in miles) of a particular spot beam. In my case, I'm trying to find out the San Antonio area.

RLJ, what would need to be done for my parents to get local channels out of San Antonio? Would it need to get installed at my SA address or just ordered with my information and installed at their house? Stripping the cable package to just local channels is an option; however, not all locals are HD and the HD quality for the ones that have it are very poor.