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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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 04/11/2024 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?

Comments

Sunday, 19 August 2012

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:20 AM

Joe: Well if you can carry out this task yourself then you have nothing to lose by trying a few experiments, although unfortunately UK's predictor is down and so its impossible at this present time to be able to assess the results you are liable to get by swinging your around to Pendle Forrest, albeit that its not shown as being possible to receive on this sites terrain indicator, of course neither is !

However the differences between each of the stations are /

Pendle Forrest (100W full ) located @ 12 miles 53 degrees (V) polarisation, (A) group aerial. BBC1 Ch28 / ITV1 Ch25.

Winter Hill (100Kw full Freeview) located at 7 miles 183 degrees (H) polarisation, (C/D) group aerial. BBC1 Ch62 / ITV1 Ch59.

Darwin (100W Freeview Light PSB only) located @ 4 miles 133 degrees (V) polarisation, (B) group aerial. BBC1 Ch45 / ITV1 Ch49.

BBC & ITV only mentioned to enable you to carry out a manual tuning on each , also if you have a wide band aerial (black blanking plug on end of elements support) then disregard the aerial groups given.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

Friday, 24 August 2012

Joe

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

9:14 PM
Blackburn

JB38: One site I looked at suggests that is a possibility but this site shows insufficient coverage. I personally doubt that I will be able to 'see' from my location. Light is not sufficient for my needs.

Unable as yet to check the plug colour, but I suspect it's black. I've never seen any other colour bar black. :-)

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Joe's 25 posts GB flag

Joe's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Mark Fletcher

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

11:29 PM
Barnsley

Joe.,BB2 4TS.If as you state your has a black bung,it denotes a group W aerial and although perfectly okay for main itself which uses high frequencies,and group W wideband aerials perform well on the higher frequencies,it is however not a type of aerial to be used on an all group A ,main transmitter or mast in a poor/marginal area due to their poor perfromance as such.My best advice either retain your group W wideband aerial and use this polarised horizontally for Winter Hill main transmitter,or change your group W wideband for preferably a group A aerial (red coloured tip/bung),or a semi-wideband group K aerial (grey coloured tip/bung) polarised vertically for all group A major relay which carries all six multiplexes between frequencies 21-28.Bear in mind Pendle Forset major relay is only 100w and at your location from abode to that mast is effectively a poor/marginal area,and your current group W wideband aerial switched vertically to all group A Pendle Forest will most likely give a poor result possibly only picking up two or three multiplexes and with considerable pixellating pictures in the process.The decision is entirely up to you Joe.

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Mark Fletcher's 673 posts GB flag

Mark's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Saturday, 25 August 2012

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:28 AM

Joe: Yes, (@ 12miles / 52 degrees / V Polarisation) would "appear" as your best bet for "full service" when viewed by clicking " UK tradeview" at the R/H/S of your posting.

Just out of interest, on a quick look at the rooftops in your Lane I see aerials facing a variety of directions, this always a indication of an area being a touch iffy for reception.

As far as your aerials cross beam end blanking plug colour is concerned, black () is perfectly OK albeit that "red" (group A) favours Pendle Forests channel group, but I wouldn't let that worry you as in practical terms the difference in strength isn't that great.

Just out of interest you should try a manually tuning in Ch28 then Ch25 (BBC & ITV1 from Pendle Forest) although the impediment to good reception from Pendle that I see is that signal path between there and you passes over quite a number of trees and industrial units at various points along the way, this not exactly being an ideal situation when the transmission source is only 100 watts.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

Saturday, 8 September 2012

Joe

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

3:20 PM
Blackburn

Thanks guys. I've done some preliminary via a . I received nothing at all from and can receive almost a full compliment of from .

Rotating the existing external aerial to Pendle Forest is looking like my best option.

I'll give Winter Hill another go from the loft before I commit myself though.

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Joe's 25 posts GB flag

Joe's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Joe

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

4:05 PM
Blackburn

Just had another at getting a from . To my surprise it worked. Now I know that I can either get my existing re-aligned or a new one installed.

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Joe's 25 posts GB flag

Joe's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Friday, 14 September 2012

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

6:07 AM

There are a few puzzling items in the "North " aka "" service tables at present.

Sometime in the last two weeks, the Time Offset Table (TOT) has had an entry for added to it, as shown below.

Time Offset Table
UTC_time = 14/09/2012 03:16:16
country_code = GBR
country_region_id = 0
local_time_offset = 01:00
local_time_offset_polarity = 0
next_time_offset = 00:00
time_of_change = 28/10/2012 01:00:00

country_code = IRL
country_region_id = 0
local_time_offset = 01:00
local_time_offset_polarity = 0
next_time_offset = 00:00
time_of_change = 28/10/2012 01:00:00

For quite some time now, maybe a year, Welsh transport streams "BBC A" and "D3&4" have been listed in the SDT.
These transport stream are not listed in the NIT so no frequencies are given for them, nor are LCNs assigned to the on them.
They are, however, listed in the EIT, where full schedule data is present for the following services:

BBC ONE
BBC TWO Wales
ITV1 Wales
S4/C

Perhaps someone can shed some light.

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js's 841 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:31 AM

js: See:

Improvements to Freeview EPG data in reception overlap areas | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

Saturday, 15 September 2012

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

12:49 AM

Thanks Dave, that accounts for the Welsh puzzle.

I've just checked the TOTs on . There are two networks at 28 degrees East, namely and , each with their own service tables. The ASTRA TOT has an entry for (to be expected since BSkyB officially broadcast to Ireland). The Freesat TOT does not.

So, why is there a TOT entry for Ireland from ? Is this another case of accommodating a regional overlap?

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js's 841 posts GB flag

Wednesday, 19 September 2012

cliff kenyon
11:36 AM
Macclesfield

bad yesterday and today.
, Cheshire, sk11 6px

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cliff kenyon's 1 post GB flag

cliff's: ...

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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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