WHDT Rf 4

[Eli Polonsky]

My set scanned it in with an indoor antenna here in Somerville,
but it's not on virtual 3.1 (which it was briefly on years ago), it's
now on virtual 4.3, and the visual TOH ID card says WHDT 4.
It's coming in with a very weak signal, one "bar" on my set.

Apparently, different types of sets deal with scanning in multiple
signals that have the same virtual channel but are on different RF
channels differently.

On my old 2009 Westinghouse HDTV (that died a few years ago),
the channel with the highest RF channel of two that used the same
virtual channel (that the set would find last of the two in a scan),
would supercede the one with the lower RF channel (that the set
would find earlier in the scan) and it would map that channel to
the virtual channel, with the one with the lower RF channel being
lost.

The Element "Smart TV" that I bought to replace it (an off-brand
that was on sale cheap at Target the night that my Westinghouse
died) maps both channels as watchable. It mapped the first one it
found (with the lower RF channel) WHDT to virtual 4.3, and it now
shows up on the set on 4.3 between WBZ 4.2 and 4.4, instead of
WBZ 4.3.

When the Element encountered the WBZ channels on its higher RF
channels later in the scan and it already had WHDT mapped to 4.3,
it mapped WBZ 4.3 to display on its RF channel 20.3, which is where
I now get WBZ 4.3. The Westinghouse would have just thrown out the
one it got earlier in the scan (WHDT) and mapped WBZ 4.3 there.

I don't understand why WHDT does this. They have been on, what,
about a half-dozen different virtual channels in all of their short-lived
attempts to come on the air in Boston over the years?

I don't see how this one will work in the long run, are they even aware
that they are using a virtual channel occupied by a heritage 70+ year
major station? I'd think that WBZ wouldn't be happy with them not
only being on the same virtual channel (albeit the .3 subchannel) but
also marketing and promoting themselves as Boston's Channel 4.

If they are aware of the existence of WBZ-TV and they insist on being
"on" ch. 4 in Boston, why didn't they map to a higher sub-channel than
4.4 to avoid the in-use WBZ virtual channels?

EP




> Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2022 19:07:49 -0500
> From: Bob DeMattia <bob.bosra@demattia.net>
> To: boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org
> Subject: WHDT Rf 4
>
> WHDT Rf4, virtual 3.1 went on the air today from the Pru.  Low power
> temporary antenna.  Is anybody able to receive it?
>
> Bob
>
>