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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter.

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

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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?

N

Nedbod

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

7:03 PM

Brian : Re your post of Saturday 22 December 2012 10:20PM

Nedbod: "The UHF dates start in 1984, as this is when was added to the line-up. It would have taken up too much space to add in the one by one".

I thought Channel 4 started at 5pm on the 2nd November 1982 ? One day after S4C ? So was broadcasting transmissions for Channel 4 well before this. I remember buying a large Group C/D to pick it up in Mottram-in-Longdendale (as we lived on the other side of a deep cutting in a poor Winter Hill area). At the time, the , our best , didn't broadcast Channel 4, indeed was next (which we could also receive in Mottram). C4 showed the test 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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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag

M

Martin Smith
7:21 PM

Just a heads up; M2 seems to have been on lower recently. Mums Humax PVR in the M33 area chose the welsh equivalents plus S4C in preference to the English versions on this only. I manually deleted the Welsh versions from her auto list and manually added C59 from back.

Incase anyone else has the same issues with ITV, ITV+1, ITV2, Ch4 and 5.

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Martin Smith's 1 post GB flag

N

Nedbod

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

11:28 PM

Why is the bit rate higher on the COM 4, 5 & 6 Multiplexes than the more popular and more watched PSB 1 & 2 ?

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag

N

Nedbod

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

11:32 PM

Why is your icon bouncing up and down on the map, has their been an earthquake at . The red transmitter lights looked fairly stable from earlier this evening ,when I went to post a few letters. You can see Winter Hill from the post box.

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:16 AM

Nedbod: So as to carry more in order to generate more profit.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:58 PM

Nedbod: As Dave Lindsay said. The increased bitrate comes at a cost: the required -to-noise ratio to nearly guarantee fully reliable 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- Freeview coverage), while the PSBs have to achieve at least coverage matching analogue coverage levels.

The BBC take more seriously than the others, putting only seven streams on PSB1 (with 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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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

M

Marcel
3:59 PM
Manchester

Can anyone me please. I've just finished setting up my FreeviewHD and I can recive all the but no HD ones. On every UHF channels I get 98% Signal Strength and 100% Signal , but on the UHF CH54 there is at all. I am reciving from Bolton transmiter and I live in Blackley, near Delaunays Rd. Can someone please help me to sort it out.

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Marcel's 3 posts GB flag

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

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:02 PM

Marcel: What's the model of the TV?

If, when manually tuning to , there is an option for which gives the choice of DVB-T and DVB-T2, then you need to select the latter.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

M

Marcel
4:16 PM
Manchester

It is a LG 42LW450OU, and no there is no choice of when doing it manually.

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Marcel's 3 posts GB flag

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

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:40 PM

Marcel: I can't ascertain for certain, but I think that the most likely answer to why you can't receive HD broadcasts is because it doesn't have a DVB-T2 tuner built-in.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

Page 46

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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