The Solid Signal Blog

How many times have you freaked out because your cell phone wasn’t showing any bars? This can seem frightening if you’re on the road or away from home. But what if I told you that cell phone bars aren’t that important? Believe it or not, this icon isn’t a good measurement of your cell phone’s ability to send and receive calls and data. So, if this is true, how can you rely on your cell phone? Don’t worry. Signal Connect has the solution. Cell Phone Bars: What They Really Mean When it comes down to it, your cell phone bars are not an accurate way to measure your phone’s connectivity. First of all, the bar displays vary from phone to phone. For example, you iPhone could show three bars while your friend’s Galaxy might show four...

That old faded satellite antenna behind that abandoned home was a C-Band dish. Some people called these things a “big, ugly dish,” and they are definitely a relic of satellite TV’s long, nearly-forgotten past. Those C-Band dishes were popular during a time when every broadcaster’s signal was “free to air.” Much like local TV stations, the pay channels broadcast their signal with no encryption to protect it from being taken. These broadcasters didn’t worry about this because no one was able to receive these signals except for other broadcasters. The birth of the C-Band satellite is a testament to human ingenuity. Knowing that it was possible to snag free cable TV signals, it didn’t take long for someone to come up with a way to get...

Here’s the funny thing about working in tech support. For whatever reason, problems tend to come up in batches. You’ll have three different people ask the same question in the space of an hour. That happened the other day, and I thought I’d write an article about the solution. The scenario A lot of our customers have DIRECTV at home and they also have a portable dish like the KING One Pro for their RVs. This time of year it’s a pretty popular setup. It’s true that DIRECTV doesn’t have NFL Sunday Ticket anymore, but a lot of football is available on local channels and using a portable dish is a great way to get local channels without using a big antenna. It’s pretty common for people to want to take a receiver from home and bring it...

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to one of our longtime customers. He’s the sort of guy we love at Solid Signal… the kind that likes to push their equipment as far as it can go. He has one of the more complex DIRECTV setups I’ve seen in a long time. It’s full of HR24 DVRs, an HR54 Genie 1, and a bunch of Gemini devices. Talking to him makes me realize that it’s time to revisit that question, “how big can your DIRECTV system get and still work?” It’s not the easiest question to answer, because it really depends on what you mean by “work.” Without further ado, let’s get into it. The maximum number of devices There is no theoretical limit to the number of devices that can be run off the same DIRECTV dish. Businesses and hotels have...

This week Ken welcomes the incredible actor, singer and all around impressive human being (despite famously playing an alien) Jane Badler (follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/janebadlerworld/) Ken and Jane discuss Australia, always being a New Yorker despite living in Australia for over 30 years, the changing nature of accents, botanical gardens, the ever traveling American, moving from Long Island to New Hampshire at 15, Mission Impossible, the 1988 writer’s strike, working with classic actors, working with Kim Novak, Falcon Crest, working on Soaps, Angela Lansbury, Murder She Wrote, the divide between TV and movie actors, The Doctors with Alec Baldwin, Neighbors, Margot Robbie, doing comedy, V: The Series, The Macy’s...

If you’re looking for the latest in the world of luxury yachting, you know there’s only one place to go. The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) is your premiere destination and this year the show is being held October 25-29. It’s the best way to check out all the latest in boats and marine technology. A little bit about FLIBS The Marine Industries of South Florida presents the show, as they have for many years. It’s the largest in-water boat show in the world, according to them, and I have no question of that. Manufacturers from all over the world bring their latest superyachts to the Marina in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Late October, when much of the country is getting chilly, is perfect weather for this experience in...

A few weeks ago, I was talking to one of our front-line tech experts and they asked me this question on behalf of a customer. The answer is actually “yes,” but it takes a little bit of explaining to get there. First, why would anyone want RCA audio? Chances are, at some point in your life, you’ve connected up some sort of audio device with a pair of RCA plugs like what you see above. It was the standard way of connecting things up in the 20th century. After all, we barely had any sort of surround audio back then and we certainly didn’t have Bluetooth. All things considered, this is a pretty low-quality solution. Depending on the quality of the cables, there can be some seriously degraded audio. It’s only two channels which is far...

People ask me every now and again if it’s ok if they mooch off their neighbor’s Wi-Fi. They usually tell me that they have permission to do it. They’re looking for some sort of blessing from me, so that when their significant other asks, they can blame me. Or at least that’s how I imagine it. So here’s the answer I give them: Maybe. Sort of. Kind of. Maybe not. No need to be all high and mighty yourself. You’ve done it. You know you’ve done it. Especially if you live in an apartment complex. You’ve used someone else’s Wi-Fi without asking. Maybe you’re doing it right now. You might be hooked into your neighbor’s Wi-Fi. Before we go any further, it’s fair to point out that this isn’t a legal blog and no one writing here is a lawyer...

All the way back in 2017, the FCC completed its grand plan to rethink TV frequencies. As a result of improvements in technology, it was no longer necessary to have so much empty space between channels. So, the FCC reasoned, we don’t need as much of the radio spectrum devoted to TV. Even the largest markets have 25 or so broadcast stations, so why have 50 channels? In order to keep from creating mass chaos, they decided that stations would move in waves. (Find out a lot more detail here.) In many cases, all the stations in one market would move within a few weeks of each other, but in some cases it’s a drawn-out process that could take months. For the better part of two years, I advised people to scan for channels every month. Once you...

I know a lot of people would like to see the output from their security camera as part of their satellite TV guide. Unfortunately, it’s not possible with most systems, but there are some workarounds. It’s not that there’s a real technical reason, but there are several reasons why this isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Luckily, there are some options out there that can help at least a little bit. First of all you can’t add anything to your guide. That’s the first hurdle, and probably the most important. There is no way to hack into your DIRECTV guide to add any sort of content at all. This is done on purpose, since most people “just want to watch TV” and adding that capability might make it too complex for mom and pop to understand...

Live satellite TV on a yacht is a must-have, if you ask me. It’s great to sit on the deck and relax, but when the time comes for bed, it’s nice to have some TV to watch. It’s also a great way to spend a rainy hour or two, because that does sometimes happen while you’re out on the water. Satellite internet is great, of course, but it’s not always the best choice for video. If you’re using a data capped plan — and you probably are — you’ll use it up pretty quickly if you try to do a lot of streaming video. Of course you know all that, and that’s why you have satellite TV on your boat. Considering how complex and advanced they are, marine satellite systems need very little maintenance. But on the other hand, the plastic outer dome, called...

The so-called next generation of television service is stuck in the mud. One of its biggest cheerleaders has dropped it, and Congress hasn’t even considered it (when they are legally required to.) Find out more, then call 888-233-7563 to learn about a next-generation technology that works! 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 device. If you want us to add another aggregator leave a comment below. Amazon...

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The news has had a little time to sink in. Lightning, Apple’s proprietary connector, is now a dead man walking. We all knew it was coming. Apple moved its iPad to USB-C, and European countries now require all phones to use a common connector. It was only a matter of time before Apple complied. So what now? Pour one out for Lightning Lightning was introduced with Apple’s iPhone 5 eleven years ago. At the time it replaced Apple’s 30-pin Dock Connector, which frankly no one liked. It was large, flimsy, and hard to support. Lightning was small, elegant, and fast enough for anything you wanted to do with it. And yet it was doomed from the start. USB-C was released to the public about 15 months after Lightning was. In many ways it was...

Nearly all of us have grown up with communications satellites as a part of our world. Even if you’re an elder boomer, the artificial satellite was launched when you were just a teen. You probably don’t really remember the world without it. Today, satellites are so much a part of our lives that we don’t even think about it. It’s pretty amazing to think that it hasn’t even been 100 years since we started communicating using them. Literally, the beep heard around the world In 1957, 55 years ago, the world changed forever when a 585mm (23″) diameter chrome ball became the first man-made object to leave Earth’s atmosphere. It carried with it a tiny, 1-watt transmitter but its beeps were heard by amateur radio fans everywhere and it ushered...