It was probably not configured to be in it's parking orbit around Earth and pointing it's antenna at Earth to talk to us (it wasn't supposed to be in that orbit for long!). When it was supposed to be on it's way, it would've pointed it's antenna at Earth for telemetry / telecommands.
It's not the distance that is the problem. Imagine that you are looking through a telescope, and someone is behind you waving...
The other thing to remember is that it is obviously not well, otherwise it would be on its way by now, although from what I've read, no-one is admitting to knowing anything about what is happening.