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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 29/05/2023 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, 250 BBC Red Button, plus 16 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, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Granada),
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35- (585.8MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	56 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 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, 109 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, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! movies action, 46 Channel 5 +1, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 CBS Reality, 74 Dave ja vu, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 89 ITV4 +1, 203 CITV, 208 Pop Player, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, plus 15 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C31 (554.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	11 Sky Arts, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 pick, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 57 Smithsonian Channel, 60 Drama +1, 70 Quest +1, 75 Yesterday +1, 83 Together TV, 233 Sky News, plus 9 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, 71 Quest Red +1, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 88 Classic Hits, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 19 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
	Spotlight TV, Now 70s, Country Music Entertainment , 63 GREAT! movies Christmas 1, 77 NOW 80s, 80 Clubland TV, 87 Now 90s, 91 Classic Hits MCR,

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 (139°)
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 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

Tuesday, 9 February 2016

anthony

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

10:10 AM

All winter hills are at normal levels here in SW Manchester. Your may have been damaged in the recent storms, check with your neighbours if they have any problems and check your cables are plugged in securely.

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anthony's 58 posts

Friday, 19 February 2016

mr jim benbow
8:40 AM
Chester

my is very good on 4 but on 55 the strenth is 58 and is 44 but on channel 58 the strenth is 70 but the quality is 0 which is causing the to break up and is unwatchable the oher 4 bands show a strong 90 strength and 70~80 % quality as 4 are good and 2 bad i would be very gratefull of any advice you could offer is it possible the problem could be with the tv itself in some way it is a 32 inch lg connected to an only i can not see it as an aerial problem if the other channels ar ok 0ur post code is ch2 4qb

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mr jim benbow's 1 post

Tuesday, 23 February 2016

H J Hill
2:23 PM

The UHF58 problem of high strength but zero suggests radio- pickup.

I had a similar problem with UHF32 and 37. It turned out to be the HDMI between my pvr and tv. Even with the pvr on stand-by there must have been information going up/down the HDMI which radiated and was being picked up by the lead. (The HDMI sockets are adjacent to the aerial socet on my tv). I solved the problem with better screened RF coax cables from the plate to the various tv/pvr items; and a better screened HDMI cable between pvr and tv. The thin, flexible aerial cables (as sold in shops) are badly screened, in my experience.

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H J Hill's 17 posts

Thursday, 25 February 2016

R Hart
9:06 AM
Welshpool

SY21 8RT
problems on Chanel 50 and 49 and audio break up .
Chanel 59 full signal and no problems . Problem started about a week ago and has been continuous .
Have had problems in the number of years I have used this but they have never lasted this length of time before .

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R Hart's 1 post

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:27 PM

R Hart:

The mapping shows you as using the transmitter and not that at . Long Mountian is shown as having maintenance work curreintly and thay mau well account for your currently problems.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts

Tuesday, 1 March 2016

Sylwia
9:19 AM

Why I can't get channel on my ? I am in wa14.

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Sylwia's 1 post

Friday, 4 March 2016

Dewi
3:25 PM

Are there any issues today 3rd March 2016 transmitting from ? My on the Wirral has dropped significantly post code CH470NE?

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Dewi's 1 post

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

8:15 PM

Treated myself to a new toy: August DVB-T210 - HD USB TV Tuner - External DVB-T2

August DVB-T210 - HD Freeview USB TV Tuner - External DVB-T2 Digital Television Receiver and PVR Style Recorder - WINTV Dongle for High Definition PCTV - Desktop and Laptop Compatible Stick for Windows 10, 8, 7 / Vista / XP: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

My aim was to get a (cheap) T2 device compatible with CrazyScan2:

CrazyScan download | SourceForge.net

CrazyScan2 is a DTT Spectrum analyser that draws Constellation Diagrams and shows RF Level and to Noise in dB.

I had read that the August DVB-T210 was equivalent to the Geniatech T230, which is fully supported (RFScan2, SignalInfo2, and IQScan2) when using the fixed Geniatech BDA driver found here:

CrazyScan / Wiki / Info

I always wondered if I might be able, with a bit higher signal, to get some other multiplexes than those from .

Now, using CrazyScan2, I can see that is not possible, at least without pointing the somewhere else.

Here is a showing CrazyScan2 and the August DVB-T210 in action:

http://i.imgur.com/lhbcVu4.png

Note I'm using a fair sized 'contract' C/D aerial located in the , got from Wizard for three squid twenty or more years ago.

:

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js's 793 posts

Wednesday, 23 March 2016

Moira Cottam
2:29 AM

23rd March 2016
Can I ask what has happened to 82 ? It just seems to have gone completely! I can't believe you've taken it away to give us true crimes! Please give us it back.

link to this comment

Moira Cottam's 1 post

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

7:16 AM

There were changes to the multiplexes.

Insight Radio was renamed to RNIB Connect on Arqiva A

Chart Show TV changed LCN from 060 to 085 on GIM

1 was added on LCN 082 to GIM

+1 changed LCN from 127 to 128 on GIM

+1 changed LCN from 128 to 129 on GIM

082 True Movies 1 was removed from the local multiplexes for Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire

060 True Crime was added to the local multiplexes for Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire

127 Kix was added to the local multiplexes for Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire

Bitrates for the multiplexes with added :

Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 31 <= dPCR <= 62 ms intervals over 10 seconds for Manchester Local Multiplex (23/03/2016 04:59:23)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
02.060 | 01.945 | 02.000 | POP
02.585 | 02.410 | 02.500 | True Crime
02.585 | 02.421 | 02.500 | That's Manchester
00.532 | 00.465 | 00.499 | Kix
00.783 | 00.000 | 00.134 | Null Packets
01.707 | 00.713 | 01.415 | All Other Streams
09.048 | 09.048 | 09.048 | TS Bitrate

Kix was showing a static placard with message: 'CHECK BACK HERE ON 7th APRIL TO SEE A BRAND NEW KIDS CHANNEL'

Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 32 <= dPCR <= 65 ms intervals over 15 seconds for GIM (23/03/2016 05:13:52)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
00.608 | 00.000 | 00.387 | POP+1
00.813 | 00.000 | 00.555 | Tiny Pop+1
01.669 | 01.176 | 01.419 | ShowBiz TV
02.905 | 02.380 | 02.573 | mov4men+1
03.314 | 01.369 | 01.898 | Chart Show TV
01.884 | 01.020 | 01.466 | Heart TV
02.526 | 01.192 | 01.872 | CAPITAL TV
01.238 | 00.752 | 00.953 | True Movies 1
05.478 | 01.801 | 03.715 | Null Packets
04.212 | 02.234 | 03.258 | All Other Streams
18.097 | 18.096 | 18.096 | TS Bitrate

POP+1 and Tiny Pop+1 were showing static 'programmes start at' placards

The current Relocated Services list:

Format:
service_name relocated from multiplex_name (TSID) to multiplex_name (TSID)

CBS Drama relocated from SDN (3005) to Arqiva B (6040)
CBS Drama relocated from SDN (3006) to Arqiva B (6040)
CBS Drama relocated from SDN (3007) to Arqiva B (6040)
CBS Drama relocated from SDN (3008) to Arqiva B (6040)
mov4men+1 relocated from COM7 (A000) to GIM (7401)
mov4men+1 relocated from COM7 (A001) to GIM (7401)
True Movies 1 relocated from Local Multiplex (800B) to GIM (7401)
True Movies 1 relocated from Local Multiplex (800D) to GIM (7401)

Why is there no entry for the Liverpool Local Multiplex? This:

True Movies 1 relocated from Local Multiplex (8008) to GIM (7401)

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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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