Hi Gas20,
If he was talking about the cable connection, he's essentially correct. That connection and the over the air antenna come together at a signal booster that's often located in the bedroom. Satellite signals don't get through that booster and may also get blocked by the splitters used there and in the basement.
If you have a separate satellite connection, that should work with Directv or Dish signals. But it's not unusual to find connector problems. Check for loose connections, or for strands of the ground shield in contact with the center conductor. It's pretty easy to replace the connectors with compression type connectors like the satellite companies use. If you scroll down
this page, it shows pictures of connector installation. Just need the toolkit and a couple of connectors. Or you can have the dealer fix it under warranty if that's more convenient.
I don't know about the Elkridge, but many of the larger 5'ers have four satellite connections in the UDC. One pair goes to the living room and the other pair to the bedroom. The right-hand connector of each pair goes to pre-wiring in the roof and the left of the pair goes to the destination. It's pretty easy to connect the cables in the wrong order on the back of the UDC. So if you have that setup, try all 4 connectors.