OTA reception-tv vs. converter box

[jimmymke]

Greetings.  A while back I questioned the members about OTA recording without getting a tivo or some other big buck solution.  Good suggestions came in.  I settled on ordering a Zinwel Zat, used a coupon, and spent 10 bucks for it  with shipping.  Hooked it up to the vcr and it works just as I had hoped.

The irony is the converter box pulls in scads more channels than my Magnavox tv!  I didn't even know some of these channels existed.  When I rescanned, nothing new was added to the tv.  I am using two db4 anetenna units on the roof, one aimed at MKE and one at Madison.  I wonder if I should consider an amp or just moving to a db 8 to boost signal to my obviously inadequate tv tuner.  Any thoughts?
Jimmy in Oconomowoc

[wysiwyg]

Glad to hear you like your Zinwell. Just keep an eye out for the timer corruption. I recently had a streak of about 6 weeks without problems, then the timers became corrupted 2 days in a row.

As for reception, most of the converter boxes have tuners that are better than those found in most HDTV's that are a year old or more. My Zinwell occasionally gets reception of a few Madison stations, but only when atmospheric conditions permit. You can try an amplifier, but it might over amplify stations with strong signals, which would cause more problems than it solves.