Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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53.625,-2.516 or 53°37'30"N 2°30'56"W

BL6 6SL

The symbol shows the location of the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter which serves 2,690,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) mast?

Winter Hill transmitter - Winter Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 15/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Winter Hill transmitter broadcast?

If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.

Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C32 (562.0MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) North West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C34 (578.0MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Granada), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Granada),
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35- (585.8MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD North West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C29 (538.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C31 (554.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C37 (602.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others
LM	H -20dB	C40 (626.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	1,000W
	from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester,
LL	H -17dB	C24 (498.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	2,000W
	from 30th June 2014: 7 Bay TV Liverpool,
LPR	H -20dB	C56 (754.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	1,000W
	from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire,
GIM	H -20dB	C57 (762.0MHz)	572m	DTG-2	1,000W
	Now 90s, Spotlight TV, Clubland TV, Country Music Entertainment , Classic Hits MCR, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 77 That's 60s MCR, 80 That's 80s, 86 That's 90s MCR, 88 TV Warehouse+1,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-2 16QAM 2K 3/4 18.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Winter Hill transmitter?

BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 22km southeast (140°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.

ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 22km southeast (139°)
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.

How will the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1956-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2009	2009-13	2013-18	2013-17	20 Feb 2020
	VHF	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E T	W T	W T
C9	ITV_waves
C12	BBCtv_waves
C24								_local
C29								SDN
C31							com7	com7
C32								BBCA
C34								D3+4
C35								BBCB
C37							com8	com8
C40								LOCAL2
C48			C5_waves	C5_waves
C49_{tv_off}						ArqA	ArqA
C50_{tv_off}						BBCA	BBCA
C54_{tv_off}					-BBCB	-BBCB	-BBCB
C55_{tv_off}		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	ArqB	ArqB	ArqB	com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}					_local	_local	_local	LPR
C57_{tv_off}					GIM	GIM	GIM	GIM
C58_{tv_off}					SDN	SDN	SDN
C59_{tv_off}		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C61					ArqA
C62		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA
C65		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves

_{tv_off} Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
_waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 4 Nov 09 and 2 Dec 09.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4	500kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 100kW
com7	(-12.9dB) 25.7kW
com8	(-13.4dB) 22.6kW
Analogue 5	(-16dB) 12.5kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-17dB) 10kW
LL	(-24dB) 2kW
GIM, LM, LPR	(-27dB) 1000W

Local transmitter maps

Winter Hill Freeview Winter Hill DAB Winter Hill AM/FM Winter Hill TV region BBC North West Granada

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area

May 1956-Jul 1968	Granada Television†
May 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Granada Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:09 AM

- Winter Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 29/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:08 AM

- Winter Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 05/06/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts GB flag

G

Gino
3:38 PM

Free view Chanel's still down in ST71af

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Gino's 5 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:50 AM

Gino:

Even though is still listed for Planned and you are some 63km from it, you are predicted to get a good signal on all 6 main multiplexes.
Now, there has been some quite variable weather related Tropospheric Ducting in recent days which can affect because of being received from more distant transmitters in Europe or the UK - not all multiplexes are necessarily affected, but this isn't normally sustained for any lengthy periods, nor is there normally any lengthy interruptions to transmission during engineering and even if they are on reduced for a while, you should still be receiving signals.

Did you perchance Retune at any point when you may have had for a short while either due to Interference or Engineering? If so this very often clears your correct tuning. It's not advised to retune when you have no signal or badly pixellated pictures if you were initially correctly tuned.

If you did, and you don't know if your tuning has been cleared, your best best will be to do a Manual tune for Winter Hill's UHF .
They are , , , , , & that's in order -
BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6
You may also get the G-MAN Local mux on and a choice of L-MAN on (Manchester local news) or L-LIV on (Liverpool local news)

See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which TV Channels (LCNs) are carried on which multiplex.

If you are finding your problem persisting, check your looks intact and is pointing correctly, that the downlead looks undamaged and isn't flapping in the wind, that you haven't lost power to any amps/splitters etc. and all you coax plugs are inserted correctly. Check if a near neighbour has the same problem. Then post back with more detail of your aerial installation and things you've checked/tried.

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Chris.SE's 4,139 posts GB flag

K

Karl

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

5:32 AM

A very (very) old issue seems to have reappeared as of yesterday the 21st June.

The problem relates to older Sony equipment (such as RDR-HXD870 recorders) and basically renders them unusable.

Key points are channels such as BBC1 do not display.

The EPG is 'wrong', its the wrong colour for one thing.

checks show 'tuning' and then the screen goes blank.

This was a massive issue 10 yrs ago and did get resolved by . The symptoms seem the same as back then. Factory resets etc (if they work at all) have the issue reappear when the machine does its background channel scans.

There was a huge thread on this issue on 'avforums' at the time as back then there were lots of this sort of gear in use.

Any thoughts? perhaps as to what has actually changed.

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Karl's 21 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:20 PM

Karl:

is still listed for Planned , whether that has anything to do with what you are experiencing I don't know.

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Chris.SE's 4,139 posts GB flag

K

Karl

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

12:54 PM

Thanks Chris, the issue has snowballed and is now affecting these products nationwide. Sony, the BBC and are all now involved. Apparently the coding for the EPG has changed and that has caused issues on some equipment.

Everyone is hoping they can/will fix this as there are lots of these older units still giving excellent service.

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Karl's 21 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:09 PM

Karl:

Hi, thanks for the update. I hadn't done a wide search but had gained the impression this was more than just . There have ben problems with EPG coding for a while, JS who is a poster here periodically complains about issues, I he's been in contact with BBC and Arqiva.

I'm also sure that there are other issues which only affect certain sets, why? Yet to be discovered.

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Chris.SE's 4,139 posts GB flag

J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:23 PM

Karl: caused by slashless crids courtesy of WildEarth

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js's 827 posts AT flag

J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:48 PM

Chris.SE: " I he's been in contact with BBC and Arqiva"

not a chance, old chum, wouldn't even try

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js's 827 posts RO flag

Page 223

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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