By Andy Ostmeyer

aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com

The converter box may not be the issue for some viewers come February.

So discovered Ed Browning, of Carthage, a natural resource engineering specialist with the University of Missouri extension.

Browning said his experiment with getting the most channels for the least investment is still a work in progress. But the whole thing, he noted recently in a newsletter for the University of Missouri extension, “is about to drive me bonkers.”

He realized immediately he didn’t watch enough television to justify spending hundreds of dollars on either a new digital-compatible television or on a satellite dish and monthly bill, so he opted for the converter box.

He bought a name-brand box for $60 with the $40 credit available to all consumers. Total cost so far out of pocket: about $20. Hooking it up wasn’t difficult, Browning said. Initially, he received the five channels he was getting before hooking up the box, plus two additional public broadcast stations he had never received before.

So far, so good.

“All of a sudden all I could get was three PBS stations,” he said.

He isn’t sure what happened. It just stopped.

“I turned the rabbit ears every which way but upside down, but I couldn’t improve it,” he said.

So it was back to the store, this time for a “smart antenna,” which hit him for another $33. Total so far: about $53.

“It improved it some.”

Still, he wasn’t back to where he was before. If it was just right, he might get NBC, along with PBS stations, but none of the other channels — ABC, CBS and FOX — that he had been receiving before the box was hooked up.

“By this time, I am just about through investing money,” he said.