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?

Stuart Owens

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

11:42 PM
Wrexham

Well, not long to go now before Bay TV Liverpool's official launch. Just found it on my EPG on Channel 8. When the other channels on UHF 56 from WH switched on, I was getting 100% Strength/100% which I am still getting and was quite surprised to be able to receive them from my area and at such high strength/quality since although the is much lower though the beam is much narrower, to still receive 56 from here and at very slightly stronger signal strength than the other channels from WH (around 93-96% Strength). Even at my parents house at LL13 9NQ can receive quite excellent signal strength.

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Stuart Owens's 156 posts GB flag

Stuart's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

D

David Roberts

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

8:30 AM

Stuart Owens: All along the North coast,the from the 2KW ERP local mux,from ,is receivable with good signal strength and . It will be interesting to see if anyone who receives the Welsh 's,report's that they have lost Four at EPG location 8. Certainly with the re-tune on the 3rd September,2014,i am expecting some enquiries,from puzzled customer's.

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David Roberts's 23 posts GB flag

D

David Roberts

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

2:00 PM

David Roberts: As an experiment,i carried out Two re-tunes,on different 's,which had a Four,located in EPG position 8. One displaced Channel Four into the 800's,placing BayTV Liverpool in position 8 and the other,placed Bay TV Liverpool in the 800's. So it seems there will be variations in EPG position for Bay TV Liverpool,on those receiver's that are receiving a Welsh ,as well as .

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David Roberts's 23 posts GB flag

I

Ian Fitter
6:14 PM
Bolton

I'm curious - how accurate are the LL, LM and LPR plots on the main map?

Here in Horwich, although we are in Greater Manchester, we are getting the Liverpool LM mux loud and clear: (https://www.dropbox.com/s/gzr3twvnxnnhdft/Screenshot%202014-08-27%2023.07.36.png?dl=0)

According to the plots, we should have whatsoever for LL, but should have some for LM.

We're no stranger to odd broadcast here: We cannot get Bolton FM (96.5FM) because someone had the bright idea to put it on the same as Radio Wave which broadcasts at 200W from , drowning out Bolton FM's 25W.

'My list' for my postcode shows no entry for CH56, yet I am getting a signal almost as strong as some of the other more powerful muxes.

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Ian Fitter's 13 posts GB flag

Ian's: I's Freeview map I's terrain plot I's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Stuart Owens

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

6:36 PM
Wrexham

David Roberts: From your reply, it sounds like you think I live on the North coast. I don't live along the North Wales coast. I am very inland and much further south compared to the likes of and .

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Stuart Owens's 156 posts GB flag

Stuart's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

7:25 PM

Ian Fitter: UK predict, correctly, that you should have Liverpool LM loud and clear.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag

I

Ian Fitter
7:46 PM
Bolton

KMJ: so they do. Are the plots shown on the main map from a different source then?

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Ian Fitter's 13 posts GB flag

Ian's: I's Freeview map I's terrain plot I's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Stuart Owens

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

8:07 PM
Wrexham

I think you both mean LL, not Liverpool LM. LL means Local Liverpool. LM means Local Manchester and LPR means Local . So by saying 'Liverpool LM', you are saying 'Liverpool Local Manchester'.

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Stuart Owens's 156 posts GB flag

Stuart's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

9:19 PM

Stuart Owens: Yes, of course. Maybe the UK abreviations should really be used, so L-LIV for Liverpool and L-MAN and G-MAN for the Manchester muxes!

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag

I

Ian Fitter
5:10 PM
Bolton

Stuart Owens: Yes, typo on my part I meant Liverpool (LL). Still the wrong mux for our area.

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Ian Fitter's 13 posts GB flag

Ian's: I's Freeview map I's terrain plot I's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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