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 18/11/2024 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), 71 That’s 60s,
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 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C31 (554.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C37 (602.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 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, 77 That's 60s MCR, 78 TCC, 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?

M

MR L HARDISTY
8:59 PM

Why does my utube BBC i player and free view keep going off nearly every night my wife and i are getting a bit fedup can you help us please ?

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MR L HARDISTY's 1 post GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:37 PM

MR L HARDISTY: YouTube and iPlayer both use your internet connection, whereas is received via an . If neither are working that would suggest that you have multiple faults or you may have some very serious cause of nearby. Does it go off at the same time every evening? It could be being caused by something operating on a timer.

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StevensOnln1's 3,671 posts GB flag

D

Dave Smith
10:48 AM

Hello,

I must start by thanking everyone involved in creating/updating the Full on the (Bolton, England) web page as I have found this an invaluable resource over the years when retuning my various PVRs.

I do like the following features-

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

and was wondering if a fourth option of List by could be added?

I would appreciate a fourth option as I have an older PVR which deletes the recording schedule if I carry out any automatic retune which is rather annoying.

Carrying out a manual retune on the older PVR is no problem but having a list of which frequencies to retune would be of. Even better would be the option to down load the various listing options as a csv file so that I could create my own Excel spreadsheet to aid in retuning my PVRs.

I realise that my suggestion for a forth option/csv file might take some time to put on the web page but do that my suggestions can be implemented in due course.

Best wishes,

Dave Smith
South Liverpool

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Dave Smith's 1 post GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:25 PM

Dave Smith:

Hello Dave. Unfortunately the site owner hasn't managed to get time to get all the information correctly updated since the clearance. Whilst the main 6 multiplexes at the top of the page are correctly listed, the local ones are not. The frequencies of the 6 muxes are alongside the channel numbers.
The "change over time" list hasn't been updated either.
The temporary mux COM7 closed at the end of June when it's licence expired.

For the sake of clarity, here is the current data -
In the order BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6
UHF are -
The main multiplexes are , , , , ,
The Local ones are Local Manchester, Manchester GI on & .
Liverpool Local mux on , Local mux on .
If you hover over the C channel numbers, it should give you the .

See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for what should be the up-to-date list of which channels are carried on which muliplex.

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Chris.SE's 4,364 posts GB flag

M

Michael Martin

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

2:25 PM

I now live in Grove, . Where is my ? Does it matter?

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Michael Martin's 41 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:35 PM

Michael Martin: It certainly won't be which is the page you've posted on. The should generally cover , but we need a full postcode to access the predicted coverage for your exact location.

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StevensOnln1's 3,671 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:49 PM

Michael Martin:

As you undoubtedly know from previous posts, a full postcode would be required to give the most likely conditions at your location. In your general locale the most likely will be at a bearing of approx. 38 degrees (almost NE), rods horizontal. Have a look at your neighbours aerials!
The Oxford page has UHF details.

Depending on location, you may get some very weak signals of some multiplexes from and/or , but they will be very unreliable.

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Chris.SE's 4,364 posts GB flag

D

Dave Barter
9:14 PM

Strange effects on Dave (UKTV) on ch35. Intermittently it's like it can't work out the screen aspect and flickers briefly between wide screen and back to normal. It's not affecting the audio which I would have expected if it was poor or . No other affected and it continues during the adverts so that excludes it being program specific.
LA14 using NW and option.

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Dave Barter's 6 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:17 PM

Dave Barter:

It's most likely to be the current weather conditions producing some temperature inversion/tropospheric ducting which can affect different parts of the country at different times. Both and the BBC have current warnings about the possibility over the next day or two.
The affects can be brief or more prolonged, often affecting only one but sometimes several. Do NOT retune!

See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which are carried on which multiplex.
You'd need to quickly flick to another channel on the ArqA/COM5 multiplex to see if any of those were affected in the same way as already mentioned other multiplexes may not be affected at the same time or to the same degree.

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Chris.SE's 4,364 posts GB flag

N

Neil Scragg
10:46 PM

Hi, after making some changes to my set up... and monitoring things, am I correct in thinking that late evening around 23:00 that strength across all is reduced some?

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Neil Scragg's 2 posts US flag

Page 203

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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If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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