Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 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 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 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.
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 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C12 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C24 | _local | ||||||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C40 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C48 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C49tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C50tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | -BBCB | -BBCB | -BBCB | ||||||
| C55tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | com7tv_off | ||
| C56tv_off | _local | _local | _local | LPR | |||||
| C57tv_off | GIM | GIM | GIM | GIM | |||||
| C58tv_off | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C59tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C61 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C62 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | |||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
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 GranadaWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area
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Sunday, 17 February 2013
J
janet huyton4:03 PM
Chorley
We have had a planning permission letter to say a wind turbine has been applied for close to our house. Is there any evidence that this will affect our tv/radio reception? thanks, Janet
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J
jb385:01 PM
janet huyton: You are indicated as being only 6 miles away from the Winter Hill transmitter at 131 degrees, and so if the turbine is located anywhere near to this bearing then there is a greater chance of it causing problems than not doing.
But though even if its behind you it still cause problems because of its relatively close proximity to the transmitter, as its blades will be in line with the main beam of the signal which can result in massive signal reflections from the rear clashing with the signal received via the front of your aerial.
The whole thing is hit and miss, as although wind turbines do not always devastate a digital signal in the same way as done with analogue transmissions, they always have to be looked at as bad news.
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janet huyton: Potentially, they can affect TV reception because the blades are reflective.
Perhaps small comfort, but in such situations the company has a responsibility to rectify any issues with reception, or else provide an alternative means of watching TV.
When (technically it's "if") they are built, it may depend on which way they are facing as to whether they cause you grief, or they may do it all the time, perhaps to differing degrees.
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Friday, 22 February 2013
A
anthony3:14 PM
The Manchester Multiplex has reappeared overnight on my Sony TV, this has also been reported by someone else on Digital Spy. C/N is now 19db it was always 15 previously.
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Saturday, 23 February 2013
N
Nedbod7:03 PM
Brian : Re your post of Saturday 22 December 2012 10:20PM
Nedbod: "The UHF dates start in 1984, as this is when Channel 4 was added to the line-up. It would have taken up too much space to add in the services one by one".
I thought Channel 4 started at 5pm on the 2nd November 1982 ? One day after S4C ? So Winter Hill was broadcasting test transmissions for Channel 4 well before this. I remember buying a large Group C/D aerial to pick it up in Mottram-in-Longdendale (as we lived on the other side of a deep cutting in a poor Winter Hill reception area). At the time, the GLOSSOP relay, our best transmitter, didn't broadcast Channel 4, indeed the WREKIN was next (which we could also receive in Mottram). C4 showed the test card and test transmissions from late summer onwards I think on Channel 65. I still have a VHS recording of this somewhere (not the girl and blackboard though).
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Sunday, 24 February 2013
M
Martin Smith7:21 PM
Just a heads up; M2 C59 seems to have been on lower power recently. Mums Humax PVR in the M33 area chose the welsh equivalents plus S4C in preference to the English versions on this Multiplex only. I manually deleted the Welsh versions from her auto scan list and manually added C59 from Winter Hill back.
Incase anyone else has the same issues with ITV, ITV+1, ITV2, Ch4 and 5.
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Wednesday, 27 February 2013
N
Nedbod11:28 PM
Why is the bit rate higher on the COM 4, 5 & 6 Freeview Multiplexes than the more popular and more watched PSB 1 & 2 ?
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N
Nedbod11:32 PM
Why is your transmitter icon bouncing up and down on the map, has their been an earthquake at Winter Hill. The red transmitter lights looked fairly stable from Macclesfield earlier this evening ,when I went to post a few letters. You can see Winter Hill from the post box.
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Thursday, 28 February 2013
Nedbod: So as to carry more services in order to generate more profit.
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M
Mike Dimmick2:58 PM
Nedbod: As Dave Lindsay said. The increased bitrate comes at a cost: the required signal-to-noise ratio to nearly guarantee fully reliable reception increases, meaning that effectively coverage is reduced. The commercial operators can get away with this because they don't have to meet a high coverage target (their only requirement is to match pre-switchover Freeview coverage), while the PSBs have to achieve at least coverage matching analogue coverage levels.
The BBC take quality more seriously than the others, putting only seven video streams on PSB1 (with radio stations occupying enough space for an eighth), where ITV/C4 are aiming for nine on PSB2, and the commercial operators run 11 or 12. Two of the BBC streams - BBC Parliament and 301 (Red Button video) usually run in reduced resolution, in order to provide more capacity for the 'proper' channels.
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