The Solid Signal Blog

The following short statement has been published on BusinessWire: As this blog and others reported, Nexstar stations were restored to DIRECTV subscribers yesterday (Sunday, September 17) in time for NFL games that were carried on Nexstar stations. Both parties said that they were “continuing negotiations.” Now, that could have meant an additional months-long delay. In practice, though, it usually means that an agreement will come in the next day or so. And, it did. This puts an end to one of the most significant channel blackouts in recent history. We regular people will never know what the terms ended up being. I can say that I joined with bloggers and YouTubers across the country to say “enough is enough” and it seems to have had...

Every so often over the years, I resurrect the idea of the “Wrong Tool/Right Tool” series. It generally happens when I find out that someone is using something for a purpose it wasn’t intended for. Don’t get me wrong here. I love it when our Solid Signal fans are enterprising and smart. I also think it’s great when you can “upcycle” something instead of tossing it away. And I too have been known to take on a project just to see if I can make it work. On the other hand, there’s usually a reason why the things you buy are better than the things you make, and when that happens, I write an article like this one. WRONG TOOL: Coat Hanger and 2×4. We said it before: Yes, you can use a coat hanger as an antenna. But given the makeup of...

The space probe known as Voyager 1 holds a number of interesting distinctions. It’s the furthest object made by humans from us, and that distance keeps increasing. It’s the first craft to get high-resolution images of the outer planets of our solar system. And, at this point in time it’s older than most of the humans on earth. It’s been working continuously, at some level, since it was launched nearly 50 years ago. But, its time is sadly coming to an end. A little of the history of Voyager 1 The very idea of the Voyager spacecraft was formed in the 1960s when scientists proposed taking advantage of a rare event. At the end of the 20th century, all the outer planets would be “relatively” close to each other, so that it would be...

Sources all over the internet are reporting that stations owned by Nexstar are live on DIRECTV once more. Apparently both sides have agreed to turn the feeds on while negotiations are still underway. More news as it becomes available. Enjoy NFL Sunday! The post BREAKING: Nexstar stations are back on DIRECTV appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog. Continue reading...

One of the nice things about DIRECTV is its user base. I get the privilege of talking to people all the time who have had the service for 20 years or more. And as much as I tease them, a lot of these folks are incredibly affectionate toward their older hardware. They’ll keep a device that they like for as long as possible, even if they’re offered a new one for free. Honestly, that’s a pretty good practice. It’s good for the environment and it helps you feel really comfortable with what you have. But it does mean sometimes, you have to make tough decisions. See if this scenario rings any bells You hear the hard drive in your DVR make funny noises. You might have gotten a message on the screen. You’ve rebooted and the DVR recovers… for...

Here’s something that freaks me out a little. 100 years ago there was practically no microwave radiation on Earth. Why? There is no natural substance that emits microwave radiation at the level of even a single microwave oven. Today, microwaves are literally everywhere, from your kitchen to your cell tower to your office to your airport. They are an essential part of life. Without microwave radiation, the way you eat, the way you communicate, and even things like the way you drive would be drastically different. What is a microwave anyway? The term “microwave” refers to any broadcast on a frequency between 300MHz and 300GHz, although in practice it generally means frequencies above the broadcast TV bands. Your router works on...

Remember Blockbuster Video? I don’t mean its sad final days. I mean the days, nearly 30 years ago, when Blockbuster was a real destination by itself. You could find friends their, scouting for new releases. There were big events when high-profile movies were finally available. It was the place to be back in the days when MC Hammer told you not to touch this. We all know what happened. Blockbuster died, and most folks believe it’s because they couldn’t keep up with technology. The lure of having DVDs sent to you and keeping them as long as you wanted overshadowed the idea of going to the video store. And then of course streaming changed the model forever. But is that what really happened? Why Blockbuster really died Blockbuster really...

How many remotes do you have? Six? Twelve? You may not use them all on a daily basis anymore but chances are you still have them somewhere. The remote is another one of those things that has become such a part of our lives that we don’t think about it. Of course, the remote was largely unheard of until the 1960s, and even by the 1980s it was a luxury item. Today they’re sold at drugstores for under $10. The first remote control The first remote control, and the first remote-controlled device, were shown in 1898 believe it or not by uber-genius Nikola Tesla, the man who invented most of our electrical power grid, not to mention the speedometer. (He also tried to invent ways to transmit electrical power wirelessly but that didn’t work...

DIRECTV’s H26K Commercial Receiver is a big topic of discussion here at Solid Signal. And it should be, since it’s the first new DIRECTV receiver since 2015 and the first one to support 4K in a standalone receiver. There are all sorts of questions about it that people tend to ask, and as they come up I try to get them answered. What is the “Local Channel Connector?” Well, it’s this: The Local Channel Connector was produced in very small numbers in 2018 and 2019. Its purpose is to integrate over-the-air antenna channels into the DIRECTV guide. DIRECTV had a device like this in the late 2000s, but it had long since gone out of manufacturing. The LCC was never intended as a moneymaker or even as a mainstream product. It was built it...

Are you considering becoming a fast food restaurant franchise owner? If so, you’re probably getting ready to sign a franchise agreement. This is a huge commitment that can affect your life and your finances going forward. (You already know this, but it’s worth repeating.) Before you sign, Signal Connect has some tips for you to consider. If you’ve already signed your franchise agreement, this advice is still helpful for anyone in the fast food business. To help you make the best buying decision, here are seven tips for buying a fast food franchise: Analyze the Franchise Document Common sense dictates that you scrutinize anything that you’re going to sign your name to. The Federal Trade Commission requires that certain information...

In the last several years, we’ve seen a lot of new antennas come on the market with built-in preamplifiers. They tend to be smaller than non-amplified antennas, and in the antenna world smaller generally means more popular. Generally, amplified antennas are sold as a way to get more channels and a better signal. But is that really true? There are some folks, myself included, who will tell you that it’s possible that an amplified antenna is worse than a non-amplified antenna. So what’s the deal? Should you avoid an amplified antenna? Not usually… but that doesn’t mean that an amplifier “couldn’t hurt.” An amplified antenna was “the way to go” in the days before HDTV but the reasons they worked with those old signals have almost all...

One of the things about this blog, and having done it for 11 years, is that it’s impossible to ignore when I get things wrong. You can look through the archives on this site by clicking on a year, and you’ll find dozens of editorials over the years that didn’t quite work out as I expected. So, when I actually get something right, I like to crow about it… a little too much. Back in 2018, the average person paid about $20 a month for streaming. It was hard to imagine that just five years later, the average person would pay more for streaming than for traditional pay-TV. Yet, that’s what happened. And, I predicted it in this article called, “The big problem with streaming costs.” I pointed out that back in 2018, streaming services were...

Las Vegas is not known as a place for the easily distracted. After all, this is the city that felt it necessary about a decade ago to put metal railings along the sidewalks so that hapless tourists wouldn’t wander into traffic. Driving through Las Vegas was certainly distracting when you had giant signs to read like these: But honestly the competition for who could be the most distracting didn’t begin in earnest until about 1990, when animated signs started taking over. That competition never stopped. Drive down Las Vegas Boulevard today — if you dare — and you’ll be hit in the face with photorealistic gigantic images from all sides. But honestly, nothing compares to what MSG has unleashed upon an unwitting world. The Sphere at the...

This morning I was poking around my computer’s list of installed apps and I came across this entry: Now first of all, I think this sounds like some sort of spyware. It sounds like a confusing obfuscation of made up words that is just designed to make me think it’s important. I don’t remember installing anything by this name and so I began to get worried. I investigated, and once I figured out what was going on, I thought it would be a good subject for an article. Answer: It’s Java. You might remember Java. It was one of the first add-on languages for the web. Back in the early days, HTML was pretty boring. In order to give people the ability to interact with web pages in fun and interesting way, addons like Flash and Java were...

This article is a collaboration between Stuart Sweet and Geoff Bell. How does a splitter work? It’s easy to think of a splitter as a simple circuit that splits signal. The truth is, there’s a lot more to a splitter than just cutting the signal in half or in quarters. The technology behind splitters and combiners is really complex and it’s taken nearly a century to work out. Let’s take a look at the components of a splitter and understand all the engineering that it takes to make one work. The Tee The Tee is the simplest. This is best used for DC and where impedance matching isn’t needed since at the junction of the 3 ports, the impedance is ½ the input impedance. Adding Resistors The addition of resistors improves the impedance...