Mr. Know it all

Ok,

So UHF signals do not go through roofs, trees with leaves, through airplanes, flocks of birds or even swarms of bugs. It does not receive well in rain storms or snow.

The signal is a very direct line of sight. Analog UHF was like that pebble dropped in a puddle it went everywhere with ease.

So the first thing that you now need is a UHF antenna and if you are more than 40 miles from a television transmitter you might also need a pre amplifier.

You have to use a Quad Shield type wire to minimize loss. The higher in frequency you go, the more signal the wire looses.

You have to use a antenna rotor - because the beam width of most television stations are only about 30* off center. If the antenna is pointed more than 30* away from a straight line of sight - you are not going to get a signal or a good signal.

The sad part is that stores sold junk converter boxes and people bought them because they were cheap. These are the same people that only buys nothing but the best when it comes to what they eat or the cars they drive or the clothes they wear or how they live.

A junk converter box is not going to have the same reception as a good converter box.

The stores, which wants to make a maximum amount of profit sold these boxes at a premium price - so they could line their pockets with cash.

Even of you brought the box back when it did not work, they still kept your $40 government coupon. They made $40 for something that has less technology than a pocket radio.

I have found only two boxes that works.

One was a Zenith DTT 900 and the other is a Channel Master CM 7000

The DTT 900 all had issues with internal clocking, where the picture signal does not match sound. The sound has issues because it is only about half what your normal television sound was, so when you turn off the converter box the sound from the television speaker - static is very loud.

Out of all the CM 7000 boxes I had, only one had issues where when you turned it on it made a noise on the audio of the television that sounded like a squeal. I sent it back and am waiting for a repair / replacement box.

The CM has a little less sensitivity than the Zenith, but out performs it with the quality of sound and a 12 hour program guide.

Anyone that bought one of the so called cheap boxes from a local department store or Drug Store - got what they paid for.

At one point, the Channel Master box was the whole way down to $12 each delivered to my front door.