I live 50 miles northwest of New York City.
My rooftop antenna system consists of a rotor, separate UHF and VHF
high band antennas, connected to a CM 7777
mast mounted pre amplifier.
The engineers continue to play with the antennas and power output at the
Empire State Building, and reception is a very mixed bag. UHF channels
are more reliable than the VHF high band channels. VHF channels are
stronger in the morning on cold days with snow and ice on the ground.
After a rain storm I can receive WABC channel 7 if I point my antenna
towards a cell tower about one mile away. Once the tower dries out the
signal dies. The most reliable signals are from WCBS, WNBC, WNYW, WWOR,
and WPIX. The non English audio, infomercial, and holy roller stations
on UHF come in loud and clear at all times, but I don't care for their
programming. Too many of them don't know what to do with their sub
channels, wasting bandwidth on poor quality 24 hour a day traffic cams,
canned low cost junk programming, rebroadcasts of weather forecast
audio. I used to get many of the PBS stations, until their money sources
died up and they reduced their transmitter power.

Not all converter boxes have the same design receiver chip sets. Some
are much better than others.

Steve