"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message
...

snip

It may not take too much antenna.

It doesn't.

I have two converter boxes, one Magnavox, one Zenith. I just now tried my
local stations with them using a straight 24-inch alligator clip lead as the
antenna. Location is a residential garage in the San Diego suburbs. Stucco
walls, metal garage door closed, overhead fluorescent lights on.
Transmitters in three different locations.

All the UHF locals came in, 10 transmitters with about twenty total
programs. The one low-power VHF did not. Looping the clip lead back and
clipping the end to the F-connector produced about the same results. (Lost
one TJ station.)

When I "upgraded" to a POS 2-bay bowtie in the rafters (about 8 feet up),
all eleven locals came in, plus KCBS from LA . On the Zenith box, arguably
a better unit, I got two more LA channels, although one of them had some
intermittent freezing and tiling.

If even poor antennas work well, why all the whining?

"Sal"
(KD6VKW)