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6 Expert Tips for Increasing the Value of Your Home

Certain aspects of your home’s worth lie beyond your influence. For instance, relocating your house to a new spot is simply not feasible. Nevertheless, don’t despair if you lack a substantial budget or ample time. Your home represents a valuable asset, and enhancing its allure can not only increase its market value but also create a more pleasant living environment. Renovations and makeovers can indeed be costly, especially in today’s inflationary climate, which can make planning them a challenge. Nonetheless, the home improvement industry thrives, with Americans annually investing significantly in their residences. Even relatively affordable upgrades and refurbishments can augment your property’s value. Whether you’re aiming to sell...
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What’s the best omnidirectional antenna for 70+ mile reception?

Omnidirectional antennas are kind of neat. They take in signal from all directions at once and never need aiming. They do this by using four antennas, each pointed in a separate direction, inside one casing that looks kind of like a UFO. They’re a great choice for people in cities or suburbs who want a simple, no-brainer antenna experience. But can you use one if you’re 70 miles from the broadcast towers? The simple answer is no. An omnidirectional antenna uses smaller antenna elements than you would need to receive signal from 70 miles away consistently. In order to receive signal from that distance, you’d need something like this Televes DAT BOSS Mix LR antenna: This antenna is pretty big. The manufacturer says it’s 84″ from...
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Can you use a DIRECTV Gemini without a DVR?

DIRECTV’s Gemini devices are some of the most popular ones we’ve had at Solid Signal in a long time. But, they’re also a little confusing. DIRECTV itself uses the Gemini name for three different devices that run on two different services. So, it can be a little hard for a consumer to know what they have. I’ll try to make it as easy as possible. If your Gemini looks like this This is DIRECTV’s Gemini Air device. It’s not very big and it’s designed to hang off the back of a TV. It’s easy to understand what this device does and doesn’t do. The Gemini Air is designed for DIRECTV’s streaming service, which is called by many names. It’s called DIRECTV Stream, DIRECTV for Streaming, and sometimes just DIRECTV. At any rate, it’s a service...
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11 5G Business Opportunities for Your Small Business

Reprinted with permission from the weBoost blog. The buzz around 5G is more than just hype; it’s a gateway to unprecedented business opportunities. For small to medium-sized organizations, 5G business opportunities are closer than ever, unlocking improved efficiency and stellar customer experiences. The drawback to 5G is that, due to the higher frequency waves it uses, 5G cell signal often struggles to penetrate dense building materials, compromising your ability to make full use of it. However, when your organization adds cell phone signal boosters into the mix, you can overcome those obstacles to bring reliable 5G indoors. In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at 11 ways your business can flourish in a 5G world, and how...
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Podcast #549: Retro TV roars back to relevance

Score one for the olds. If you were around in the 1980s or 1990s you’ll love this week’s podcast. Why? Because it’s all about the TV shows you loved back then. Listen, shop at Solid Signal - Signal Solutions including HDTV Antennas, DIRECTV and DISH Network satellite equipment and home entertainment supplies and accessories, and call 888-233-7563 for the best service! Listen to the podcast your way! Just choose one of the following: Option 1: Click on the image above to stream the podcast in your browser. If you use the YouTube player above, be sure to subscribe to get future videos delivered to you! Option 2: The Solid Signal Podcast is available on several podcast aggregators. Search for us, or tap on the links below on your mobile...
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STILL having screen saver problems with your commercial DIRECTV receiver? Here’s the ultimate fix

This has to be one of the most frustrating issues that DIRECTV commercial customers have faced. See if this sounds familiar. It comes from one of our customers. The customer is right. This issue has been going on for over a decade as far as I know. It’s never been adequately addressed, because it really only affects about 1 out of every 1,000 receivers in use by commercial customers, and commercial customers are only a small fraction of the total user base. So, even after all these years, it’s never climbed up the list of problems that need to be fixed. DIRECTV, like other large companies, prioritizes their engineers’ time based on how much something would cost to fix vs. how much benefit there would be for the largest number of...
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NICE AND EASY: Is my DIRECTV LNB broken?

You know, after 12 years of shepherding this blog, I can’t believe I haven’t written a simple, concise guide to seeing if your LNB is bad. I’ve written several articles that come close to the subject, but I guess I never wrote something that takes you through simple steps to try to find out if your LNB has gone bad and needs to be replaced. The honest truth about DIRECTV LNBs When it comes to DIRECTV LNBs, they tend to follow the same rules as a lot of consumer electronics. Generally they will fail within the first few days of use, or they’ll last for years. Let’s say that you installed a new LNB and it was working just fine. And then something stopped working. Let’s go through the troubleshooting steps to see if you should just...
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Does the DIRECTV Genie have a built-in Wireless Video Bridge?

I admit, this can be a confusing one. Since the introduction of the HR44 Genie several years ago, there has been some sort of wireless capability built into every DIRECTV DVR. The problem is that it doesn’t do what you think it does, most likely. The Wi-Fi adapter in your HR44 or HR54 Genie is only used to connect to the internet, not to the client boxes or Geminis. Why can’t you connect a wireless client to a Wi-Fi equipped Genie? You can, of course, but in most cases you need a wireless video bridge. I know, that doesn’t make sense, but maybe it will after I’m done explaining. DIRECTV’s wireless client doesn’t use your home’s Wi-Fi. Instead, it uses a special Wi-Fi network that isn’t used for any other purpose, and which operates...
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What is a wattmeter?

A wattmeter is a meter that measures watts. That should be the end of the story. But, it isn’t. You guys know that I’m going to tell you a lot more detail than that, right? A wattmeter is a professional instrument designed to measure the current flow through high-capacity lines. Actually, it’s usually that. You could use the term “wattmeter” for something like this Kill-A-Watt. It measures the electricity flow at the outlet, but generally it refers to a professional quality instrument. And so I need to go back a little bit further. A watt is a measure of power that gives an electrician a fairly complete picture of how much energy is being used. I could go into deep detail on how this all goes, but instead I’ll send you over to this...
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RV Solar Panels for Beginners

An RV solar kit night not save you as much money as you might think. Here’s the truth about solar power for RV. If you want solar power for your RV, you need three elements: RV solar panels, batteries, and an inverter. The panels are made from silicon and phosphorous. Sunlight causes the electrons in these cells to break and bond over and over, which creates electricity. This electricity gets stored in the batteries as DC power. The inverter transforms this into AC power, which runs electronic products. So, with solar panels, batteries, and an inverter, you can generate free, renewable energy. Just how much energy will you get from your RV solar kit, though? How Much Solar Power do I Need for my RV? If you’re considering RV solar...
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STREAMING SATURDAY: I shouldn’t have to keep captions on

I know an increasing number of people who watch with captions on all the time. Sometimes it’s because you don’t want to wake a sleeping child, spouse, or partner. Sometimes it’s because you’re multitasking. There are a lot of good reasons why someone would have captions on all the time. Perhaps the best reason is the reason they were designed for: you might have some hearing loss. And there’s one very bad reason to keep captions on all the time. It’s the one I use and it’s probably the #1 reason that people keep captioning on: you can’t understand what people are saying. And friends, let me say it clearly: that stinks. The difference in experience A friend and I have both been watching The Rings of Power on Prime Video. They watch...
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Last call for component connections

Hey, remember these? There was a time, a generation ago, that the best way to get HD programming was through the use of five RCA cables. That time has long passed, and in general, most people are going to be better served by HDMI. But, the story of how we got here is an interesting one and definitely worthy of telling. What a component connection? A component connection consists of two parts. First, and easiest to explain, is the audio part. There are a pair of RCA connectors that are used for analog audio. Generally you will find them to be red and white, although red and black is also often used. In either case, red generally signifies the right channel, while the other connection signifies the left. These connections can carry...
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What should you do with all those old Lightning cables?

In a move that surprised absolutely nobody, Apple recently announced that its new iPhone 15 will use the industry-standard USB-C connector rather than its proprietary Lightning connector. That connector debuted with the iPhone 5 way back in 2012, so if you’re an Apple fan you’ve had ample time to amass about 20 of them. That is, unless they’ve broken on you, as they very often do. Apple’s Lightning cables have always shipped with an absurdly thin cable that looks elegant but breaks easily. But let’s say you’ve been careful and as a result, you have a dozen or so Lightning connectors. Your new phone doesn’t use them, so what should you do? First of all, save a couple of them It may not seem like it now, but you’ll run into a situation...
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NICE AND EASY: Can you use crimp-on connectors for a cell booster cable?

If you’re in an older house, chances are there’s coax cable in the walls. A previous owner might have had an antenna or cable TV. No one ever goes through the trouble of fishing cable out of walls, they just leave it there. So what can you do with it? Most of the cables you’ll find from the 20th century use a crimp-on connector like the one in the photo above. This was common back then, and this sort of cable works fine for low-bandwidth applications like analog cable or over-the-air antenna. But can you use them for cell phone signal boosters? After all, if you don’t have a cell booster, you should. Your phone is the way you connect to the world and chances are, that connection isn’t that good inside the house. Take a second and shop...
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