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HERE TO HELP YOU!
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Friends, I get a lot of my best article ideas from people who call Solid Signal with questions. If you haven't tried our help line at 888-233-7563, you really should. Our US-based team has tons of knowledge about the products and services we sell. And, whenever I hear about a question that I haven't covered on this blog, I try to write about it. I've actually talked about this topic here and there but I haven't ever done a whole article about it. So, here goes.
Radio and television broadcasting is obviously one of those things that exists in the real world and so it follows certain laws of physics. Why do I even mention that? Because one of those laws has to do with the way energy dissipates over distance. Whether it's a sound, an electrical signal (like radio and television) or even the impact of a rock being thrown in a pond, it all obeys the same basic rules.
Rule one is that the signal degrades slowly and naturally. There's no way to get a signal to just stop exactly where you want it to. That's just not how the real world works. Rule two is that as you increase the distance, the signal degrades proportionally. It has to with the "rule of squares" which I go into in detail here. The bottom line is that you can't control a broadcast signal so it stops exactly where you want it to. You can shape it a little, make it stronger here and weaker there, but you can't make it respect a national border.
At this point you might be reminded of a recent article I wrote about something called the "cliff effect" or "shelf effect." This is a characteristic of digital signals where it actually seems like it does just sort of stop at a particular point. While that's true, this effect is practically impossible to control and there are still things you can do like low-noise amplifiers that will change where that falloff is going to happen.
International broadcast law is an incredibly complex thing which, there's no way I'm going to be able to boil all of it down in 1,000 words or less. Broadcasting law exists because it has to. If different countries didn't agree to respect each other's broadcasts, then you would have chaos any time you're near a border. Imagine a place like Europe where the countries are relatively small compared to the rest of the world. Now imagine that a tiny country like Luxembourg decided that it was going to let people broadcast on the same exact frequencies used by their counterparts in Germany, Belgium, and France. No one would be able to receive anything.
This is why there are agencies like the International Telecommunications Union. The ITU is part of the United Nations. Its only purpose is to make sure different countries can work together and not stomp all over other countries' broadcasts. It's one of those rare cases where pretty much everyone on the planet thinks this is a good idea.
Of course, if you're reading this blog there's a 92.3% chance you're in North America (I just checked.) So let's talk about North America for a second. As continents go, North America's kind of unique. Almost all of its landmass is taken up by three countries: the US, Canada, and Mexico. This has meant that pretty much all radio and television broadcasting in the entire continent is compatible in pretty much every country. It's just evolved that way, and one of the things that's made it happen is the fact that people actually do want to get international broadcasts.
The overwhelming majority of Canadians live close enough to the US border to get television broadcasts. Canada itself doesn't have a lot of TV broadcasting, and so Canadians statistically watch a decent amount of US television. On the other hand, while the Mexico side of the US/Mexico border is pretty sparse, there's a good reason for that border to have international broadcasts. It turns out that it's a lot cheaper to put up a broadcast tower on the Mexico side of the border than it is to put up one on the US side. When you look at this list of radio stations in San Diego, CA, many of them are on the Mexico side of the border even though they largely target the US side.
If you're close enough to a foreign country to get their broadcasts, no one is going to stop you. As I said above, in some cases they'll encourage you. The US Government takes advantage of this to broadcast propaganda to other countries, but most folks just do it so they can watch Canadian hockey or US sitcoms.
In Europe, it's a different story. Or, it can be, at least. Many countries in Europe have state-sponsored TV. There are only a few channels and they're all owned by the state. In a case like that, the TVs themselves may only pick up certain channels. It's legal to buy a tuner to let you pick up international broadcasts, but that tuner may need a smart card or chip to make it work. You get that card or chip when you pay your taxes.
So, go ahead and get a big antenna if you want to pick up Montreal TV or radio stations in Ciudad Juarez. There's no reason not to! Check out Solid Signal for the best selection of antennas. If you want personalized service, call us at 888-233-7563 or fill out the form below.
The post Is it legal to get TV and radio broadcasts from another country? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
A little about the technology of broadcasting
Radio and television broadcasting is obviously one of those things that exists in the real world and so it follows certain laws of physics. Why do I even mention that? Because one of those laws has to do with the way energy dissipates over distance. Whether it's a sound, an electrical signal (like radio and television) or even the impact of a rock being thrown in a pond, it all obeys the same basic rules.
Rule one is that the signal degrades slowly and naturally. There's no way to get a signal to just stop exactly where you want it to. That's just not how the real world works. Rule two is that as you increase the distance, the signal degrades proportionally. It has to with the "rule of squares" which I go into in detail here. The bottom line is that you can't control a broadcast signal so it stops exactly where you want it to. You can shape it a little, make it stronger here and weaker there, but you can't make it respect a national border.
At this point you might be reminded of a recent article I wrote about something called the "cliff effect" or "shelf effect." This is a characteristic of digital signals where it actually seems like it does just sort of stop at a particular point. While that's true, this effect is practically impossible to control and there are still things you can do like low-noise amplifiers that will change where that falloff is going to happen.
Now about broadcast law
International broadcast law is an incredibly complex thing which, there's no way I'm going to be able to boil all of it down in 1,000 words or less. Broadcasting law exists because it has to. If different countries didn't agree to respect each other's broadcasts, then you would have chaos any time you're near a border. Imagine a place like Europe where the countries are relatively small compared to the rest of the world. Now imagine that a tiny country like Luxembourg decided that it was going to let people broadcast on the same exact frequencies used by their counterparts in Germany, Belgium, and France. No one would be able to receive anything.
This is why there are agencies like the International Telecommunications Union. The ITU is part of the United Nations. Its only purpose is to make sure different countries can work together and not stomp all over other countries' broadcasts. It's one of those rare cases where pretty much everyone on the planet thinks this is a good idea.
Now, in North America…
Of course, if you're reading this blog there's a 92.3% chance you're in North America (I just checked.) So let's talk about North America for a second. As continents go, North America's kind of unique. Almost all of its landmass is taken up by three countries: the US, Canada, and Mexico. This has meant that pretty much all radio and television broadcasting in the entire continent is compatible in pretty much every country. It's just evolved that way, and one of the things that's made it happen is the fact that people actually do want to get international broadcasts.
The overwhelming majority of Canadians live close enough to the US border to get television broadcasts. Canada itself doesn't have a lot of TV broadcasting, and so Canadians statistically watch a decent amount of US television. On the other hand, while the Mexico side of the US/Mexico border is pretty sparse, there's a good reason for that border to have international broadcasts. It turns out that it's a lot cheaper to put up a broadcast tower on the Mexico side of the border than it is to put up one on the US side. When you look at this list of radio stations in San Diego, CA, many of them are on the Mexico side of the border even though they largely target the US side.
So it's totally legal and at least in North America, they can't stop you
If you're close enough to a foreign country to get their broadcasts, no one is going to stop you. As I said above, in some cases they'll encourage you. The US Government takes advantage of this to broadcast propaganda to other countries, but most folks just do it so they can watch Canadian hockey or US sitcoms.
In Europe, it's a different story. Or, it can be, at least. Many countries in Europe have state-sponsored TV. There are only a few channels and they're all owned by the state. In a case like that, the TVs themselves may only pick up certain channels. It's legal to buy a tuner to let you pick up international broadcasts, but that tuner may need a smart card or chip to make it work. You get that card or chip when you pay your taxes.
So, go ahead and get a big antenna if you want to pick up Montreal TV or radio stations in Ciudad Juarez. There's no reason not to! Check out Solid Signal for the best selection of antennas. If you want personalized service, call us at 888-233-7563 or fill out the form below.
The post Is it legal to get TV and radio broadcasts from another country? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
4 Replies
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544 views
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n43A0sNukCg
Direct YouTube Link - SpaceX Seeks to Conduct 450 Starship Launches a Year in Texas!
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n43A0sNukCg
Direct YouTube Link - SpaceX Seeks to Conduct 450 Starship Launches a Year in Texas!
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
0 Replies
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5 views
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
Cutting Edge
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68506 Replies
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2671310 views
Marques Brownlee
Time for another AWESOME video from Marques Brownlee!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scwlR0QHGOk
Direct YouTube Link - The NEW Tesla Roadster: My Honest Reaction
The official MKBHD Website!
The MKBHD Store
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scwlR0QHGOk
Direct YouTube Link - The NEW Tesla Roadster: My Honest Reaction
The official MKBHD Website!
The MKBHD Store
0 Replies
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5 views
iJustine
Time for another AWESOME video from iJustine!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m44iKsdN1-Q
Direct YouTube Link - NVIDIA RTX Spark launch party!!!
The official iJustine Website's Website
Buy her book!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m44iKsdN1-Q
Direct YouTube Link - NVIDIA RTX Spark launch party!!!
The official iJustine Website's Website
Buy her book!
0 Replies
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17 views
For quite a while now, people with a VIP211k have been losing their recordings on their activated external HDDs... even when there's nothing physically wrong with HDD. I believe this is an intentional and underhanded tactic that Dish is pulling in an attempt to force users away from the VIP211k.
They are obviously regretting that they ever let users have a "non-dvr" dvr in the first place. You would think they would be happy charging you a $40 one time fee... and then be happy letting the customer be the one responsible for HDD failures.
Dish clearly hates the 211k bitter-clingers. This recording deletion problem is intentional (IMO), and I think it is just one more tool that they are using. Hopper and a 2-year agreement... that's what they want you to have. Think about that... a 2-year agreement... with a company $30 Billion in debt (that's with a B). What happens when all that debt causes them to drop the channel that may have been your whole reason for having Dish in the first place? Guess who's stuck with a service that no longer suits their needs... for the remainder of the 2-year agreement.
On top of that, they don't want you to install it yourself. I purchased and installed all my equipment myself. That used to be common. Now, they lie to me and tell me that my dish must be updated to use a Hopper. Funny thing is... they don't even know what dish I have because they didn't install it, and I didn't tell them. If you ask what type of dish/LNBs the hopper needs... good luck getting an answer. All they know is that whatever you have needs to be upgraded by an installer.
It is quite apparent to me that they care much more about staying in their box, than they do working with the customer. That's too bad, because it hasn't always been that way. It's like they are totally unaware of the current business environment that they are trying to compete in.
I have been a customer since 2010. I will be cancelling my service before the next period. Yeah, I know, my $1,200 a year won't make a difference to them. It just seems like they have forgotten who needs who, especially when you consider the competition in today's streaming world. But hey, they will have succeed in forcing me off the 211k.
They are obviously regretting that they ever let users have a "non-dvr" dvr in the first place. You would think they would be happy charging you a $40 one time fee... and then be happy letting the customer be the one responsible for HDD failures.
Dish clearly hates the 211k bitter-clingers. This recording deletion problem is intentional (IMO), and I think it is just one more tool that they are using. Hopper and a 2-year agreement... that's what they want you to have. Think about that... a 2-year agreement... with a company $30 Billion in debt (that's with a B). What happens when all that debt causes them to drop the channel that may have been your whole reason for having Dish in the first place? Guess who's stuck with a service that no longer suits their needs... for the remainder of the 2-year agreement.
On top of that, they don't want you to install it yourself. I purchased and installed all my equipment myself. That used to be common. Now, they lie to me and tell me that my dish must be updated to use a Hopper. Funny thing is... they don't even know what dish I have because they didn't install it, and I didn't tell them. If you ask what type of dish/LNBs the hopper needs... good luck getting an answer. All they know is that whatever you have needs to be upgraded by an installer.
It is quite apparent to me that they care much more about staying in their box, than they do working with the customer. That's too bad, because it hasn't always been that way. It's like they are totally unaware of the current business environment that they are trying to compete in.
I have been a customer since 2010. I will be cancelling my service before the next period. Yeah, I know, my $1,200 a year won't make a difference to them. It just seems like they have forgotten who needs who, especially when you consider the competition in today's streaming world. But hey, they will have succeed in forcing me off the 211k.
168 Replies
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7500 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Has anyone subscribed to NBA League Pass for 2026-27 and try to link their account to NBA.com to stream League Pass? I purchased it for 2026-27, and when I linked, I got a message saying success, but then I receive an error that my linked subscription does not include the preseason games for NBA League Pass. Is that how it has always been? I know satellite doesn't have the preseason games on the NBA League Pass channels, but I thought that I was able to stream the preseason once I linked my account on NBA.com?
2 Replies
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87 views
Supporting Founder
Really excited for this season with Kentucky having a new coach and some really exciting recruits. Probably won't last long, but here's hoping this season is great.
143 Replies
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1468 views
Nah, you just don't understand how ignore works, which is why you made your own NFL thread thinking there wasn't one
For some reason, the satelliteguys.us site is loading a lot slower than usual on both Chrome on my Asus laptop and Safari on my iPhone.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
530 Replies
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18127 views
Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat. 
WTF… …What the Foxbat!Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat.
S
wow what a kick in the balls!!! the wife blames you when things don't work now scott's blaming youWTF… …What the Foxbat!
I know. Here's what Scott has in store for me if I get out of line:wow what a kick in the balls!!! the wife blames you when things don't work now scott's blaming you
S
OMG to freaking funny
You're no fun.
I thought I would come here and find lots of complaints about the update to the dish anywhere mobile app, but am not seeing any. It used to look just like the desktop webpage. Now you can no longer filter by sports channels or movie channels. Plus that they made it look like a big button telephone and you see fewer channels in the screen which requires more scrolling. Yes I realize you can look at sports then select which sport you want to look at, I just liked being able to see all sporting events in the guide with all other channels being filtered out. Am I alone in the wilderness on this?
7 Replies
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160 views
Supporting Founder
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Apple has finally released their Apple TV 4K with built-in Siri and a microphone so it can respond to your queries even if you don't have the remote. It also increases in price, to $299. I had been planning on updating my current Apple TV 4K streamers, but that's $600 for the two of them, and that's a pass at this point.
At $299, it had better come with 256 GB of Storage, Gigabit (or better) Ethernet, the latest HDMI tech and standards, and one year of free Apple One. But it probably won't…
At $299, it had better come with 256 GB of Storage, Gigabit (or better) Ethernet, the latest HDMI tech and standards, and one year of free Apple One. But it probably won't…
Apple TV 4K
Apple TV 4K. New Siri AI and hands-free control. Stunning picture and immersive HomePod surround sound. Works with your Apple and smart home devices.
www.apple.com
20 Replies
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336 views
S
. apple's been making money off of software and not hardware for a while
they all do that anyways.. ever notice your cell phone slows down when you come up for an upgrade..
. apple's been making money off of software and not hardware for a while
You should have looked in the APP STORE instead.
