unID 3z analog signal near Cleveland with WEWS-5

[Robert Grant]

As I was leaving a photography club meeting in Richfield, OH (about 20 miles South of Cleveland), about 2300 EDT, Tuesday 10/6, I decided to check the bands on my VX-5 with mag mount whip in the car before I left the parking lot.
My attention was first drawn to a video buzz on 3z (61.25), I checked 3z audio (65.75) and noticed audio. At the hour, I determined that the program was ABC affiliate WEWS.
Once I start up the car (a hybrid), any weak VHF signals get wiped out, so I could not follow it as a drove home. I did not hear any signal from them as a passed closer to Parma (the Cleveland tower farm).

Now, the obvious suspicion would be that I was hearing cable system leakage, so I went to Titan to look up the Richfield channel lineup, expecting to confirm WEWS was on 3.

No dice. WEWS is on 5, and WKYC is on 3 (matching their former analog and current virtual channels).

So this is a mystery. I am discounting receiver overload, since, in theory, WEWS should not by in FM analog audio on any frequency. Any ideas?

[cd637299]

Pirate maybe?

Here in Miami, we still have W58BU in Hallandale relaying WTVJ 6 virtual. Because our break room TV's at my workplace don't have converter boxes, we are stuck with either W58BU (NBC) or other LPTVs.

(I actually watched in the break room as WSVN analog 7 signed off for good.)

cd

[Stanislav]

No ch. 3 analog translators listed in the area, either. Only other "legit" possibility is a leaky private MATV system, if you were near a hotel, hospital, etc., that still converts everything to analog (a lot of such systems still distribute their signals in analog because of the unwanted expense of replacing 50, 100, or more TVs en masse). Still wouldn't explain why WEWS was on 3 -- you'd think they'd put them on 5 and WKYC on 3 to maintain the "expected" dial positions.

Or, even more remotely possible: RF adapters all have their output on ch. 3 or 4, so perhaps someone who has a digital box outputting RF on 3 (with a very leaky connection) feeding an older analog set just happened to be watching WEWS at the time? Even if this wasn't a residential area, such a setup might exist in a business: a bar, perhaps, or just somewhere where someone has an OTA setup to watch TV on the job.

Pity you couldn't have spent more time checking out how widespread the signal was. If it vanished pretty quickly at a very short distance, the above two scenarios might be even more plausible.