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Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps53.625,-2.516 or 53°37'30"N 2°30'56"Wsa_postcodeBL6 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 Digital tick


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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
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)572mDTG-121,000W
Channel icons
from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester,

LL
 H -17dB
C24 (498.0MHz)572mDTG-122,000W
Channel icons
from 30th June 2014: 7 Bay TV Liverpool,

LPR
 H -20dB
C56 (754.0MHz)572mDTG-121,000W
Channel icons
from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire,

GIM
 H -20dB
C57 (762.0MHz)572mDTG-21,000W
Channel icons
 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?

regional news image
BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 22km southeast (140°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
regional news image
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?

1956-80s1984-971997-981998-20092009-132013-182013-1720 Feb 2020
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C9ITVwaves
C12BBCtvwaves
C24_local
C29SDN
C31com7com7
C32BBCA
C34D3+4
C35BBCB
C37com8com8
C40LOCAL2
C48C5wavesC5waves
C49tv_off ArqAArqA
C50tv_off BBCABBCA
C54tv_off-BBCB-BBCB-BBCB
C55tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesArqBArqBArqBcom7tv_off
C56tv_off_local_local_localLPR
C57tv_offGIMGIMGIMGIM
C58tv_offSDNSDNSDN
C59tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C61ArqA
C62BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCA
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area

May 1956-Jul 1968Granada Television†
May 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Granada Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Tuesday, 11 June 2024
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:06 PM

Barrie Cliffe :

Why did you do a "new channel scan"?
Weren't you correctly tuned to start with?
I suggest you do a MANUAL tune of UHF channel C34 to see if you can get the PSB2 mux back which may be tricky if you are in a weak signal area, but as you haven't given a full postcode we can't check that, or whether you may be suffering interference for new/upgraded phone masts.

Once you have your multiplexes back, do NOT retune especially if you have "No signal" or badly pixellated pictures. You cannot tune to signals that are not there or cannot be decoded. The usual result is to clear your correct tuning and then you don't know when your signals are normal!

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag
B
Barrie Cliffe
9:32 PM

Hi, thanks for all your posts. I didn't know they were working on Winterhill and did a channel scan because of blank channels.
I did a scan on the mux which I received no signal, so I take it this is what they are working on.

Glad I found this site as I will be visiting often. Didn't know about the BBC channels which makes sense to free up the bandwidth. I have 80+ year old in-laws which who will be grateful for the information on the channel moves.


Thanks again everyone who replied. I will keep an eye on that mux.


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Barrie Cliffe's 2 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:27 PM

Barrie Cliffe :

The BBC HD/SD channel "swaps" don't actually free up any bandwidth as the main .SD channels are moved to LCNs 611-614
CBBC and CBeebies are just swaps for their channel numbers 201/202/204/205

These swaps are called Channel List Management or CLM and only apply on more recent Freeview Play TV sets that are Internet connected. ITV/C4/C5 are currently not affected (ITV1 HD isn't yet fully regionalised in any event).
You'll possibly find reference to CLM in the TV's Settings pages.

You can move/swap channel LCN positions manually on a lot of sets which is what I did on my set which doesn't have CLM. I moved the SD channels 1/2/4/5 to spare locations, then moved the HD 101/102/104/105 to 1/2/4/5. Leaving ITV1 SD and HD alone as the HD is not my local region yet.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 12 June 2024
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:37 AM

Barrie Cliffe :

Further to my initial reply to you, parts of that area could additionally suffer interference from a new/upgraded phone mast, but we need a full postcode to check that.
Such interference won't necessarily noticeably affect several or more than one multiplex.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag
Friday, 28 June 2024
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

9:27 AM

The slashless CRIDs are back.

If the "uklocal.tv" part was removed they would be ok.

They seem to have appeared on 27 June.

https://www.avforums.com/…2554

A dump from my EIT prog follows:


North West duffers 2024 06 28 030220

TOT.UTC_time = Fri 28 Jun 03:02

service_name = "Liverpool TV"
onid.tsid.sid = 233A.8008.8048
default_authority = madeinliverpool.tv
{
programme = "Your Merseyside Tonight"
{
crid = uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b, type = 31, item
date, duration, eventID, itemCRID
Fri 28 Jun 01:00, 04:00, 2712, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Fri 28 Jun 17:00, 02:00, 2715, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Sat 29 Jun 01:00, 04:00, 2716, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Sat 29 Jun 17:00, 02:00, 2719, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Sun 30 Jun 01:00, 04:00, 271A, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Sun 30 Jun 17:00, 02:00, 271D, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Mon 01 Jul 01:00, 04:00, 271E, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Mon 01 Jul 17:00, 02:00, 2721, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Tue 02 Jul 01:00, 04:00, 2722, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Tue 02 Jul 17:00, 02:00, 2725, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Wed 03 Jul 01:00, 04:00, 2726, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Wed 03 Jul 17:00, 02:00, 2729, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Thu 04 Jul 01:00, 04:00, 272A, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Thu 04 Jul 17:00, 02:00, 272D, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Fri 05 Jul 01:00, 04:00, 272E, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
Fri 05 Jul 17:00, 02:00, 2731, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322b
}
programme = "Your Merseyside - Breakfast"
{
crid = uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322c, type = 31, item
date, duration, eventID, itemCRID
Fri 28 Jun 06:00, 02:00, 2713, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322c
Sat 29 Jun 06:00, 02:00, 2717, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322c
Sun 30 Jun 06:00, 02:00, 271B, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322c
Mon 01 Jul 05:00, 03:00, 2787, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322c
Tue 02 Jul 05:00, 03:00, 278B, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322c
Wed 03 Jul 05:00, 03:00, 278F, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322c
Thu 04 Jul 05:00, 03:00, 2793, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322c
Fri 05 Jul 05:00, 03:00, 2797, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322c
}
programme = "Your Merseyside - Lunchtime"
{
crid = uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322a, type = 31, item
date, duration, eventID, itemCRID
Fri 28 Jun 12:00, 01:00, 2714, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322a
Sat 29 Jun 12:00, 01:00, 2718, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322a
Sun 30 Jun 12:00, 01:00, 271C, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322a
Mon 01 Jul 12:00, 01:00, 2720, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322a
Tue 02 Jul 12:00, 01:00, 2724, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322a
Wed 03 Jul 12:00, 01:00, 2728, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322a
Thu 04 Jul 12:00, 01:00, 272C, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322a
Fri 05 Jul 12:00, 01:00, 2730, uklocal.tv/pc1f567b322a
}
}


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js's 841 posts US flag
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

3:20 PM

Though no expert in this area, it seems to me that apart from the slashless aspect, there seems to be a lack of understanding by whoever created that EIT data.

By analogy with the following example BBC EIT data, there should be firstly a Series CRID and then different Item CRIDs for each item in the series.

From the same EIT dump:

North West series crids 2024 06 28 030220

TOT.UTC_time = Fri 28 Jun 03:02

service_name = "BBC ONE W Mid"
onid.tsid.sid = 233A.1045.1045
default_authority = fp.bbc.co.uk
{
programme = "Weather for the Week Ahead"
{
crid = /b-4N160, type = 32, series
date, duration, eventID, itemCRID
Fri 28 Jun 00:25, 00:05, 4980, /m/13XOM
Sat 29 Jun 00:55, 00:05, 49B5, /m/13XPU
Sun 30 Jun 02:00, 00:05, 49D3, /m/1436C
Sun 30 Jun 12:10, 00:05, 49DC, /m/1436Q
Mon 01 Jul 03:00, 00:05, 49EF, /m/14374
Tue 02 Jul 02:40, 00:05, 4A04, /m/142RH
Wed 03 Jul 02:05, 00:05, 4A18, /m/142S2
Wed 03 Jul 23:40, 00:05, 4A3A, /m/142VU
}
programme = "Breakfast"
{
crid = /b-3RHJ6, type = 32, series
date, duration, eventID, itemCRID
Fri 28 Jun 05:00, 03:30, 499B, /m/13XPB
Sat 29 Jun 05:00, 04:00, 49BB, /m/1435W
Sun 30 Jun 05:00, 03:00, 49D5, /m/1436G
Mon 01 Jul 05:00, 03:30, 49F1, /m/142R0
Tue 02 Jul 05:00, 03:30, 4A06, /m/142RL
Wed 03 Jul 05:00, 03:30, 4A29, /m/142VD
Thu 04 Jul 05:00, 03:30, 4A1A, /m/142VY
}
...

- just saying

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js's 841 posts GB flag
Sunday, 30 June 2024
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:47 PM

According to this post

https://www.avforums.com/…2373

Winter Hill is not the only transmitter affected.

Searching for the generic term "uklocal.tv", which is the offending string in the offending CRIDs, brought up:

Local TV Limited - Wikipedia

Presumably those are affected too.


link to this comment
js's 841 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 2 July 2024
Wednesday, 3 July 2024
K
Karl
10:58 AM

js: many thanks for your work on the Freeview/Sony/EPG issue. Much appreciated. It is really frustrating that each time this happens it is like starting from zero in explaining things. I'm hoping a fix will be issued.

Last year Freeview contacted me to say the issue was somewhat of a 'grey area' but having identified the problem it should not occur again (indeed! I wish) and that if it did they would know where the issue was.

So we are all hoping for a fix ASAP.

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Karl's 20 posts GB flag
Thursday, 4 July 2024
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:44 AM

Karl:

Have Freeview actually realised (which I doubt, they're a bit thick most times) or been made aware that the issue has re-occurred? And thanks JS.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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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