December 2017


2017: The Year In Streaming

This year in streaming was an exciting one! With so many developments, I want to share a bird’s eye view of streaming services in 2017. Streaming service providers were busy this year. With each company determined…


Our Predictions for 2018

Who knows what the future will bring? In 2017 we saw the growing dominance of DIRECTV NOW, the coming of DIRECTV’s Genie 2 and Hopper 3, and we finally saw Apple try to take back some…


2017: The year in antennas

As the year winds to a close, we’re looking back at the events that really shaped our product selection at SolidSignal.com. There were two big events this year in the world of over-the-air antennas and although…



2017: The Year in Cellular

2017 is almost over and that means a look back at the world of cellular. This ended up being a pretty big year although most of the news happened in the last three months. The story…


Is burn-in a problem on LCD screens?

What a nightmare. Back when a decent-sized flat panel could set you back $10k or more, many a proud owner dreaded the day when he would come home and find the words “Now Playing” or some…


COMMUNICATIONS PIONEERS: Elisha Gray

The person who invented the telephone. Was it Alexander Graham Bell? Maybe. Bell gets the credit, largely due to clever legal maneuvering and light traffic on the way to the patent office. In the late 19th…


TIP: Remember to recycle dead batteries

It’s a fact that all batteries, even rechargeable ones, wear out eventually. As wonderful as all our gadgets are, they produce a constant stream of used, useless batteries. Unfortunately, batteries are full of all sorts…



BEWARE the 1.2 meter Alaska/Hawaii dish

Bigger just has to mean better, right? That’s not the case with the 1.2 meter DIRECTV dish designed for use in Alaska and Hawaii. It’s quite a behemoth, so before you think about using it to improve your…



How to Estimate your Signals

I said I wasn’t going to give you equations for calculating gain, loss, and Noise Figure/margin but I will explain how I estimate the Noise margin (NM) of the antenna system. I’ve worked in a…