I knew about the east coast, haven't heard about the west coast...but yeas, If you live in an area that doesn't have HD locals available off air, DirecTv has a waiver you can fill out to receive HD feeds of the netwroks. You are still allowed to get your locals off sat (if you can't receive them off air) but EVERYONE can fill out the waivers for the HD Network feeds
avdude
AVDUDE "It might work better if it were plugged in and programmed first...just a thought!"