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

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

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 22/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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

_______

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?

Comments

Friday, 23 June 2023

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

3:07 PM

This issue is now fixed for "WildEarth", but remains for "GREAT! tv +1" on the GIM .

What hasn't been fixed is this:

Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North multiplex BBC A. Date: 2023/06/23 14:46:58

It has become apparent through observation that invalid bytes in the Freeview EIT text strings are the low-order bytes of the Unicode General Punctuation Block:

Of course only bytes less than 0x20 qualify as invalid codes in the context of EIT text strings.

Since about April 2018, the following invalid codes have been found in the Freeview EIT text items:

0x01, substitute: {0x01} -> Unicode Character: "EM QUAD" (U + 2001)
0x08, substitute: { } -> Unicode Character: "PUNCTUATION SPACE" (U + 2008)
0x0B, substitute: {} -> Unicode Character: "ZERO WIDTH SPACE" (U + 200B)
0x10, substitute: {-} -> Unicode Character: "HYPHEN" (U + 2010)
0x13, substitute: {--} -> Unicode Character: "EN DASH" (U + 2013)
0x14, substitute: {---} -> Unicode Character: "EM DASH" (U + 2014)
0x18, substitute: {L'} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2018)
0x19, substitute: {R'} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2019)
0x1C, substitute: {L''} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201C)
0x1D, substitute: {R''} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201D)

There are 30 invalid codes in the current EIT:
invalid code, count, percentage
0x18, 1, 3.33%
0x19, 19, 63.33%
0x1C, 5, 16.67%
0x1D, 5, 16.67%

There are 25 events with invalid codes in the current EIT.

The Culprits:
Format:
service_name, number of events containing errors

BBC World Sv., 5
WildEarth, 16
RNIB Connect, 3
Magic, 1

Events with invalid codes in the eight-day EIT off multiplex BBC A at 2023/06/23 14:46:58:

#1: BBC World Sv., Fri 23 Jun 09:32 - 10:00: title = "Science In Action", description = "Scientists have made human embryo models - or {L''}synthetic embryos{R''} - from stem cells. What are their aims? What are the ethics?", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D

#2: BBC World Sv., Fri 23 Jun 13:32 - 14:00: title = "Science In Action", description = "Scientists have made human embryo models - or {L''}synthetic embryos{R''} - from stem cells. What are their aims? What are the ethics?", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D

#3: BBC World Sv., Wed 28 Jun 04:32 - 05:00: title = "Fukushima", description = "{L''}We are at war....{R''} Politicians seize control. And then a breakthrough; can the disaster be contained?", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D

#4: BBC World Sv., Wed 28 Jun 11:32 - 12:00: title = "Fukushima", description = "{L''}We are at war....{R''} Politicians seize control. And then a breakthrough; can the disaster be contained?", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D

#5: BBC World Sv., Wed 28 Jun 22:32 - 23:00: title = "Fukushima", description = "{L''}We are at war....{R''} Politicians seize control. And then a breakthrough; can the disaster be contained?", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D

#6: WildEarth, Fri 23 Jun 05:30 - 08:30: title = "Friday SafariLIVE Sunrise", description = "Jump on board a real LIVE safari from Africa as the sun is rising. Follow and interact with the real life stories of some of Africa{R'}s most iconic animals.", description error byte: 0x19

#7: WildEarth, Fri 23 Jun 08:30 - 11:30: title = "LIVE at the Waterhole", description = "Sit down and relax at the edge of some of Africa{R'}s best waterholes. Watch the animals as they come in for their daily drink and bath whilst interacting with a safari expert in real time.", description error byte: 0x19

#8: WildEarth, Sat 24 Jun 05:30 - 08:30: title = "Saturday SafariLIVE Sunrise", description = "Jump on board a real LIVE safari from Africa as the sun is rising. Follow and interact with the real life stories of some of Africa{R'}s most iconic animals.", description error byte: 0x19

#9: WildEarth, Sat 24 Jun 08:30 - 11:30: title = "LIVE at the Waterhole", description = "Sit down and relax at the edge of some of Africa{R'}s best waterholes. Watch the animals as they come in for their daily drink and bath whilst interacting with a safari expert in real time.", description error byte: 0x19

#10: WildEarth, Sun 25 Jun 05:30 - 08:30: title = "Sunday SafariLIVE Sunrise", description = "Jump on board a real LIVE safari from Africa as the sun is rising. Follow and interact with the real life stories of some of Africa{R'}s most iconic animals.", description error byte: 0x19

#11: WildEarth, Sun 25 Jun 08:30 - 11:30: title = "LIVE at the Waterhole", description = "Sit down and relax at the edge of some of Africa{R'}s best waterholes. Watch the animals as they come in for their daily drink and bath whilst interacting with a safari expert in real time.", description error byte: 0x19

#12: WildEarth, Mon 26 Jun 05:30 - 08:30: title = "Monday SafariLIVE Sunrise", description = "Jump on board a real LIVE safari from Africa as the sun is rising. Follow and interact with the real life stories of some of Africa{R'}s most iconic animals.", description error byte: 0x19

#13: WildEarth, Mon 26 Jun 08:30 - 11:30: title = "LIVE at the Waterhole", description = "Sit down and relax at the edge of some of Africa{R'}s best waterholes. Watch the animals as they come in for their daily drink and bath whilst interacting with a safari expert in real time.", description error byte: 0x19

#14: WildEarth, Tue 27 Jun 05:30 - 08:30: title = "Tuesday SafariLIVE Sunrise", description = "Jump on board a real LIVE safari from Africa as the sun is rising. Follow and interact with the real life stories of some of Africa{R'}s most iconic animals.", description error byte: 0x19

#15: WildEarth, Tue 27 Jun 08:30 - 11:30: title = "LIVE at the Waterhole", description = "Sit down and relax at the edge of some of Africa{R'}s best waterholes. Watch the animals as they come in for their daily drink and bath whilst interacting with a safari expert in real time.", description error byte: 0x19

#16: WildEarth, Wed 28 Jun 05:30 - 08:30: title = "Wednesday SafariLIVE Sunrise", description = "Jump on board a real LIVE safari from Africa as the sun is rising. Follow and interact with the real life stories of some of Africa{R'}s most iconic animals.", description error byte: 0x19

#17: WildEarth, Wed 28 Jun 08:30 - 11:30: title = "LIVE at the Waterhole", description = "Sit down and relax at the edge of some of Africa{R'}s best waterholes. Watch the animals as they come in for their daily drink and bath whilst interacting with a safari expert in real time.", description error byte: 0x19

#18: WildEarth, Thu 29 Jun 05:30 - 08:30: title = "Thursday SafariLIVE Sunrise", description = "Jump on board a real LIVE safari from Africa as the sun is rising. Follow and interact with the real life stories of some of Africa{R'}s most iconic animals.", description error byte: 0x19

#19: WildEarth, Thu 29 Jun 08:30 - 11:30: title = "LIVE at the Waterhole", description = "Sit down and relax at the edge of some of Africa{R'}s best waterholes. Watch the animals as they come in for their daily drink and bath whilst interacting with a safari expert in real time.", description error byte: 0x19

#20: WildEarth, Fri 30 Jun 05:30 - 08:30: title = "Friday SafariLIVE Sunrise", description = "Jump on board a real LIVE safari from Africa as the sun is rising. Follow and interact with the real life stories of some of Africa{R'}s most iconic animals.", description error byte: 0x19

#21: WildEarth, Fri 30 Jun 08:30 - 11:30: title = "LIVE at the Waterhole", description = "Sit down and relax at the edge of some of Africa{R'}s best waterholes. Watch the animals as they come in for their daily drink and bath whilst interacting with a safari expert in real time.", description error byte: 0x19

#22: RNIB Connect, Sat 24 Jun 12:00 - 13:00: title = "TED Radio Hour", description = "Showcasing important ideas and inspiring stories from some of the world{R'}s most remarkable minds", description error byte: 0x19

#23: RNIB Connect, Wed 28 Jun 20:00 - 21:00: title = "TED Radio Hour", description = "Showcasing important ideas and inspiring stories from some of the world{R'}s most remarkable minds", description error byte: 0x19

#24: RNIB Connect, Thu 29 Jun 12:00 - 13:00: title = "TED Radio Hour", description = "Showcasing important ideas and inspiring stories from some of the world{R'}s most remarkable minds.", description error byte: 0x19

#25: Magic, Sun 25 Jun 17:00 - 18:00: title = "Nicole Appleton", description = "Lead singer of The Bangles, Susanna Hoffs talks about writing her first novel {L'}This Bird Has Flown', hearing Manic Monday for the first time and what it's really like being in ", description error byte: 0x18

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js's 827 posts US flag

Saturday, 24 June 2023

Karl

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

12:35 PM

Chris and js, many thanks for the info.

This is at least the third time as I recall that this type of issue has afflicted this product range from Sony. Currently all is good.

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Karl's 21 posts GB flag

Sunday, 25 June 2023

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:39 AM

Karl:

Glad yours is resolved. I understood some Pioneer models were also affected.

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Chris.SE's 4,153 posts GB flag

Gino
10:10 AM

Is still been worked on

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Gino's 5 posts GB flag

Gino
10:32 AM

Gino:

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Gino's 5 posts GB flag

Gino
2:02 PM

Gino: is still been worked on

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Gino's 5 posts GB flag

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:29 PM

Gino:

It doesn't seemed to be listed for Planned next week, but it's always possible the work hasn't been completed, there have been errors in the listings before!
BUT did you read my previous reply Winter Hill (Bolton, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy
What was the outcome of the checks and suggested MANUAL retune?

There is still 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 check with a near neighbour?
Have you received a postcard from https://restoretv.uk because you should have. If a new/updated mobile phone is very close to you, that could be causing ongoing issues but without more detail of your installation - do you have an amp/amp-splitter etc. it's difficult to advise.

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Chris.SE's 4,153 posts GB flag

Monday, 26 June 2023

Karl
7:19 AM

Chris.SE: Yes, some Pioneer (which are rebranded Sony) were affected. This post (#777) was the start of the latest episode:

Sony 870 (and all Sony HXD and some Pioneers) DVD Recorders - No Freeview | Page 32 | AVForums

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Karl's 15 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

9:13 AM

Karl:

My EIT program optionally outputs series CRID lists, organised by "default_authority".

Here is a dump that includes lists before and after the fix:

dump.7z (472.40KB)

https://www.sendspace.com…rx9u

dump.7z contains complete series CRID lists for both and .

Slashless CRIDs remain for "GREAT! tv +1" on freeview and Freesat.

The default_authority for "GREAT! tv +1" is "sonycrimechannel.co.uk" on freeview but "great.tv" on Freesat.

The default_authority for wildearth is "wildearth.tv"

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js's 827 posts US flag

Karl
12:38 PM

Thanks Chris. I'm no expert on how the code is configured and I wouldn't be able recognise where the errors might be without being shown.

(Couldn't actually retrieve the file, got as for as 'download' and constant requests to confirm 'I am not a robot' which eventually brought up a web based (so not genuine) security warning saying you are infected with harmful files and click here to ... so I just closed the browser)

All good. No worries :-)

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Karl's 15 posts GB flag

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