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 11/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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

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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?

B

BERNARD PARKER
11:09 AM
Lymm

I keep loosing the bbc stations overnight. I keep retuning in the morning but they dont work untill about 10:30. The overnight they dissapear again. POST CODE WA13 0NG

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BERNARD PARKER's 1 post GB flag

BERNARD's: B's Freeview map B's terrain plot B's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage

D

D Hardy
9:36 AM
Stockport

I live in but have moved my to or so I think but BBC1 is shown as 514mhz on Ch26 which doesn't seem to be broadcast from Winter Hill.

If it isn't where am I picking up BBC1 North from?

Having moved the aerial I can now also receive Yesterday on Ch48 690mhz shown as is this from ?

Am slightly puzzled by this.

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D Hardy's 8 posts GB flag

D's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

R

Russ Dring

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

10:32 AM
Spalding

D Hardy: Looks like the vertical polarization at . Ch 48 is broadcast from .

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Russ Dring's 48 posts GB flag

Russ's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

D

D Hardy
11:32 AM
Stockport

D Hardy: Russ
Seems from what you say I'm certainly not on
but how am I getting a from two geographically different locations?

Clearly my sense of direction is way out if i was aiming for Winter Hill.

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D Hardy's 8 posts GB flag

D's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:19 PM

D Hardy: It isn't necessarily the case that your is not pointing to .

Even with an aerial pointing to a particular and providing a good , a can "decide" to go with a different one during the automatic tuning . It is worth noting that 's are lower than Winter Hill's and so are picked up earlier during the scan.

Winter Hill is on a bearing of 309 degrees and is at 255 degrees.

Try manual scans of Winter Hill's UHF channels. Digital UK predictor doesn't rate them although I'm somewhat sceptical that predicted from another transmitter could be playing its part in the.

If your aerial is a Group B one (yellow tip) then it won't be best for Winter Hill:

Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial

Winter Hill is all Group C/D, although with the possibility that in the future the rest of C/D could be sold off for mobile it is wise to use a Group E or even .

If you can receive COM channels from Moel y Parc you could diplex that aerial with one on Ladder Hill to give you North programming.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:27 PM

D Hardy: Receiving from or come with the warning that it might not work or might be intermittent, perhaps seasonal.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

D

D Hardy
7:24 PM
Stockport

Dave Lindsay

Thanks for your detailed comments lots of advice to take on board.

I'm using a high aerial which I will with strength/.

Some more adjustments to do I think!!

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D Hardy's 8 posts GB flag

D's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:02 PM

D Hardy: Having looked at your location, you clearly have a number of factors that could cause you difficulty with from !

I refer to the fact that you are down a slope which is tree covered, and you may be in a bungalow (so lower down).

Looking at Streetview photos (taken October 2008) most aerials are on the .

What I will say is that higher isn't always better because in order to increase gain, the acceptance angle (or "viewing" angle) is narrower. Thus, you are looking for good average across a narrower angle, whereas a wider acceptance angle may give better average quality. The strength can be increased by an , but if the signal is poor nothing can be done.

Good luck!

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

D

D Hardy
8:41 AM
Stockport

Thanks, Dave

I'll keep having a go.

Not costing me anything except my time so worth it to see
what I can achieve.

Cheers

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D Hardy's 8 posts GB flag

D's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

D

D Hardy
12:07 PM
Stockport

Dave Lindsey

Just moved again and this time I'm clearly on MYP and the strength and are pretty good.

Presumably I could diplex and MYP but does that mean a large reduction in signal strength/quality?

Could you recommend an suitable diplexer as some are perhaps not the best quality and what do I need to watch out for.

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D Hardy's 8 posts GB flag

D's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Page 90

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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