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 11/11/2024 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.
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 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 | |||||
| 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-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 | 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 AM/FM 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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Thursday, 22 June 2023
C
Chris.SE1:20 PM
Karl:
Winter Hill is still listed for Planned Engineering, whether that has anything to do with what you are experiencing I don't know.
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Friday, 23 June 2023
K
Karl12:54 PM
Thanks Chris, the issue has snowballed and is now affecting these products nationwide. Sony, the BBC and Freeview are all now involved. Apparently the coding for the EPG has changed and that has caused issues on some equipment.
Everyone is hoping they can/will fix this as there are lots of these older units still giving excellent service.
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C
Chris.SE1:09 PM
Karl:
Hi, thanks for the update. I hadn't done a wide search but had gained the impression this was more than just Winter Hill. There have ben problems with EPG coding for a while, JS who is a poster here periodically complains about issues, I hope he's been in contact with BBC Engineering and Arqiva.
I'm also sure that there are other issues which only affect certain sets, why? Yet to be discovered.
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J
js1:48 PM
Chris.SE: " I hope he's been in contact with BBC Engineering and Arqiva"
not a chance, old chum, wouldn't even try
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J
js3:07 PM
This issue is now fixed for "WildEarth", but remains for "GREAT! tv +1" on the GIM multiplex.
What hasn't been fixed is this:
Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North West 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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Saturday, 24 June 2023
K
Karl12:35 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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Sunday, 25 June 2023
C
Chris.SE2:39 AM
Karl:
Glad yours is resolved. I understood some Pioneer models were also affected.
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