WHDT Rf 4

[Eli Polonsky]

Sorry for the duplicate, but I realized I forgot to turn off formatting,
which has sometimes made my messages on this list show up with question
marks at every line in the past. In case that happened again, here it is
unformatted.

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
>
>