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 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

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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, 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?

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:15 PM

ForzaManchester:

It's because it is a local aimed at Manchester only, so does not need as high a as other multilexes aimed a much broader range of viewers locations.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts

A

Angie
10:53 AM

I keep getting welsh but my usual channels are north

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Angie's 1 post

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:41 PM

Angie: Your TV has retuned and picked up a Welsh transmiter. Some TVs allow you to select your preferred if more than one is found whilst retuning, but otherwise you would need to use the manual tuning option available in the menu on most TVs and /PVRs to restore , ITV and .

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StevensOnln1's 3,510 posts

K

Kevin
12:00 PM
St. Helens

I live at postcode wa103pg, so is my main . But I unable to receive 58 & 59,
has anyone any ideas?

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Kevin's 1 post

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:07 PM

Kevin: Assuming you mean 58 & 59 on (ITV Be +1 & ITV 4 +1) these are part time channels which only broadcast for a couple of hours overnight and mainly exist so that ITV can reserve those numbers for future use.

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StevensOnln1's 3,510 posts

A

Andy Rich
2:05 PM

According to this looks like BBC4HD etc is moving to a much more powerful at on 31/03/18.
Am I reading this correctly?
Today I decided to spend some time investigating why my BBC4HD is dropping in and out. I've already remade some coax connections to no avail.
Maybe I should just wait a few weeks???

(I can see Winter Hill from the - BBC4HD reception drops from 54% to 0% continuously according to my Humax. Been like this most of this winter.)

Cheers,
AndyRich

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Andy Rich's 2 posts

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:10 PM

Andy Rich: COM8 is currently on UHF but will move to (currently occupied by COM7 which is moving to ) on 7th March, however according to UK the level will remain the same as it is now. COM8 will then make a further move to in early .

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StevensOnln1's 3,510 posts

A

Andy Rich
2:52 PM

StevensOnln1: Oh that's disappointing. I was looking above at the section "How will the (Bolton, England) transmission frequencies change over time?". It shows moving from com8 to arqB.

I have a basic (plate type reflector) but it does the job as I'm in a good area. In fact I have to attenuate the signal because the on the 100kW transmitters are too strong and my Humax box stutters. The only issue is the channels on COM8 which is the lowest power .
I don't know how to fix this issue. Any ideas?

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Andy Rich's 2 posts

J

Jan
5:19 PM

Various dropping down to 0 percent then up to 100 percent. in a couple of seconds. This mostly applies to CH4, and what I call "The lesser channels!" and has little effect on BBC channels. Location 1 mile east of Wigan.

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Jan's 1 post

P

Peter
6:20 PM

Various dropping down to 0 percent then up to 100 percent. in a couple of seconds. This mostly applies to HD channels but also affects CH1 - BBC1 non-HD today. Location Walney Island. This has been going on for weeks, but some days all is fine.

Page 161

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