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What does “SOS” mean at the top of your cell phone?

Thanks to Signal Pro Mike Moore for inspiration for this article! This is something you hopefully won’t ever have to know. But if you’re the sort of person who just likes knowledge for its own sake, here’s the answer. If the top of your phone shows “SOS” instead of LTE or 5G, it means that you can only use the phone for emergency calls. Pretty much the only number you can dial is 911. Why does this happen? There are several reasons. None of them are as scary as you might think. For Example: You might be outside of your service area. If you are in an area where your cell carrier has no towers but another carrier does, you might get this message. You might have traveled outside the country or just to a place where your carrier...
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How can you stop DIRECTV Gemini from listening to everything you say?

DIRECTV’s Gemini is the latest new hardware and it’s taking the satellite world by storm. There’s no better way to combine the world of satellite TV with the world of streaming apps. With one remote, you get access to both, plus voice search powered by Google. Let’s be honest – that’s a “must-have” today. But what if you don’t want voice search? How secure is DIRECTV’s voice search? I’d say, it’s about as secure as anything is going to be today. You can opt out of it completely by pressing the HOME button on the remote, going to Settings, and going to Google Settings. It’s powered by Google, which has committed to security when it comes to voice search. Your searches are anonymized, in other words Google’s servers don’t store anything...
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Does antenna stacking really work?

If one antenna is good, aren’t two better? That’s the idea behind stacking antennas. Put one antenna next to or on top of another and you’ll get better reception. It’s actually the basis behind antennas like our Xtreme Signal HDB8X, which is really just four smaller antennas put together in a way that makes sense. Stacking works, but you need to be aware of some simple guidelines. You don’t get double the gain. It would be great if you could take two antennas with a gain of 3dB and combine them into one antenna with a gain of 6dB. In a perfect world, you could. But there are a lot of factors that go into stacking antennas that introduce some loss of signal. There are additional cables, combiners, and some small degree of interference...
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Why can’t you plug the cable from your satellite into a “cable ready” TV?

See that black screen? That’s all you’ll get if you connect the cable from your satellite dish straight into your TV. Unlike cable TV (properly called “terrestrial cable”) your average TV just can’t decode what it’s seeing, and the result is, it doesn’t work at all. Today’s televisions have a mandate to be “cable-ready.” This means that in addition to an ATSC tuner to get regular antenna TV, the TV must also have a QAM tuner to receive cable channels. QAM is the technology used by cable companies because it’s more effective at putting multiple channels in the relatively limited space available on a single coaxial cable. It can be “clear” meaning free of any scrambling, or “encrypted” meaning you would need a box from your cable company...
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If you need an antenna combiner, is the Televes SmartKom really right for you?

I know what you’re thinking — why is a blog dedicated to selling antennas telling me not to buy one of their most expensive devices? It’s simple. The Televes Smartkom is a great device. It does let you connect multiple antennas and gives you one output. So in that sense you could call it a “combiner.” But it’s a lot more accurate to call it a “smart amplifier.” Honestly we keep the word “combiner” in the description in order to help people find it. People do tend to search for that word when they’re looking to use multiple antennas. Getting in a little deeper What you see above is a combiner. I know it says “splitter.” That’s because splitters and combiners are, at heart, the same thing. A typical splitter can be used to combine...
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PRODUCT OF THE WEEK: Flat RG6 cable

I’m going to give you two potential situations. First one: your satellite dish is outside and obviously your TV is inside. Second one: You want a cell booster in your RV but you aren’t comfortable drilling holes. In a permanent installation you would drill through the wall and use approved connection points to try to make everything look good and clean. What about an RV or apartment installation? It’s really something to think about. Apartment dwellers don’t want to be fined for making unauthorized holes, and RVers might not want to pay an installer. Money is a big part of every decision. Enter the weBoost Window Entry Cable That’s where our weBoost Window Entry Cable comes in. It will pass through windows and allow the window to...
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DON’T DO THIS: Wall up an antenna

Here’s a story that happened a while back, but I was recently reminded of it. This guy complains that he’s not getting very good reception with his large antenna. He explains that it’s one of the large flat ones like our HDB8X. I thought maybe he had distant VHF stations, since the HDB8X and other antennas like it don’t have really great VHF performance. Pretty much any antenna will get some VHF reception unless that reception is intentionally blocked. In the case of our HDB8X, it does surprisingly well on VHF-High considering its initial design spec was for a UHF antenna. That’s one of the reasons it’s been a top seller for over a decade. Here’s the real problem It didn’t take long to realize that the real problem was aiming. There...
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STREAMING SATURDAY: How will generative AI affect streaming?

In the last year or so, we’ve all been amazed by the rapid progress of generative AI. Just last year, generative AI could only manage somewhat impressionistic and messy images and repetitive text. Today, it’s possible to have a conversation with an AI that’s so realistic you could go an hour without realizing it’s not a person. AI has also created images that easily pass for reality, so much so that it’s becoming a problem. Can generative AI fix the streaming problem? The big problem with streaming is that there’s too much choice, and most of it isn’t appealing. AI is already being used on major streaming apps to help serve a selection of programs you might like. I don’t know about you, but that AI never gets it right for me. I think...
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What is a good material for an antenna?

Why are outdoor antennas made of aluminum? Why does it matter that antennas like Winegard’s Flatwave have elements made of silver between two pieces of plastic? Is there really that much of a difference? You may be asking yourself these same questions, so let’s talk about good materials for antennas. The purpose of an antenna is to conduct electricity, because radio waves are a form of electricity. So, one thing that we know an antenna must have is conductivity. Conductivity is a measure of how well any material conducts electricity. Materials that do a really bad job of conducting electricity, like rubber, are called insulators. Insulators are needed because otherwise we couldn’t touch anything electric. (It turns out that our skin...
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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Lucille Ball

Back in April 2018, I took some time to highlight the lesser side of Lucille Ball. Lucy was one of the most famous people in the world 75 years ago, so famous that people whose parents weren’t born at the height of her fame still know who she is. Her role in shaping the entertainment landscape is a little better known now than it was at the time, owing to a couple of biopics created about her since then. Still, I continue to be amazed by this woman’s ongoing influence. Of course, her comedy is timeless. Young kids still enjoy it, because it’s silly and it really doesn’t get old. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she was an absolute master of the craft. It was incredibly rare for a woman to be a physical comedian in those days. Come to...
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DO WHAT NOW? Clean an antenna with cola?

This isn’t quite a “Don’t Do This” article but it’s close. I recently had someone ask me if it was possible to clean the oxidation off an antenna with cola. I actually tested it, although I already knew the answer. .t isn’t, although I only let it sit for about a day. So there’s that. The real question: why would you think it would work? It’s actually not far-fetched though. You can use a cola drink to clean corrosion off a car battery terminal, I’ve done it myself. The key to it is the phosphoric acid that is in cola. It balances out the alkaline corrosion on battery terminals fairly well. It will also put the shine back on a green penny, for the same reason. However, that’s copper oxide, and the black stuff on your antenna is...
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UPDATED: How can I guarantee that I will get a new DIRECTV box (not refurbished?)

I don’t blame you if you want all new hardware. Then again I don’t blame DIRECTV for refurbishing receivers and sending them out again. The average receiver can be used in an average scenario for 10-15 years but a lot of receivers are returned after only two, either because a contract has come up or because the customer upgrades it. If DIRECTV didn’t have a refurbishing program, costs for receivers would be sky-high, and remember that most DIRECTV hardware goes out to customers at low or no cost. Unfortunately, paying full price to get a DIRECTV box doesn’t guarantee it won’t be a refurb. In some cases, there is nothing out there but refurbished hardware, and in some cases there is just so much refurbished hardware out there that it’s...
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FUN FRIDAY: Recreating the Enterprise bridge

Folks, we’re in one of those periods where there’s no new Star Trek to watch. We’ve been spoiled for quite a while in this regard, with so many shows going on at the same time. But, with Picard having taken its final bow, I find myself once again with no reason to keep Paramount+, and wanting a fix of something new from the 24th century to watch YouTube is happy to comply YouTubers “TrekYards” are more than happy to help you get your fix. They came up with this video showing a comparison between the original sets of the NCC-1701-D with the recreation used in the last episodes of Picard. How they did it Of course it’s no surprise that Paramount would have the original production blueprints and there is obviously going to be a lot of...
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Should you put an antenna behind the TV?

There are some folks who think antennas are ugly. I’m not one of them, but then I’m a little different from your average TV watcher, right? So if you’re one of the people who look at a TV antenna and think “yuck,” if that’s the reason you haven’t cut the cord yet, you might be thinking of putting the antenna behind the TV in order to eliminate the look of too many wires and too many pieces. I totally understand. Everyone likes a clean installation. The problem is, it might not work. Your television has metal shielding that is designed to keep its electronic emissions from affecting other things in your home, and that same stuff will effectively block antenna signals. Most flat TVs also have a mirror behind the panel itself to make the...
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