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

_______

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?

J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

12:34 AM

ITV3 and Sewing Quarter have moved to D3&4.

BBC RB HD has been added to BBC B.

A retune may be needed to update the service list.

D3&4
ONID.TSID = 233A.200B
778 MHz, uhf 59, 8 MHz, 64-QAM, 8k, 2/3, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North )U(GBR.Isle of Man)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
003 204B 01 ITV
004 20C0 01 Channel 4
005 2134 01 Channel 5
006 2085 01 ITV2
010 2066 01 ITV3
013 2104 01 Channel 4+1
014 20FA 01 More 4
015 20C1 01 Film4
024 208A 01 ITV4
028 2100 01 E4
033 20AF 01 ITV +1
078 210C 01 Sewing Quarter
100 2198 12 Information
)

BBC B
ONID.TSID = 233A.4088
plp_id = 00
T2_system_id = 402A
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West)U(GBR.Isle of Man)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
045 4F80 22 Film4+1
101 4484 25 BBC ONE HD
102 4440 25 BBC TWO HD
103 44C8 25 ITV HD
104 4500 25 Channel 4 HD
105 4540 25 Channel 5 HD
204 46C0 25 CBBC HD
602 4CC0 25 BBC RB HD
)

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js's 841 posts GB flag

P

Pete
5:24 PM

Hi, the site is great. I have been using it for a number of years to get mux details as I am on the borders of and England and need to just get English .
Recently (March 2018) a few Muxes moved and although you show there was a move the frequencies don't seem to match my .
On the 7th April I lost ITV3 which was on Com4 () It appears to now be on PSB2 ().
Would it be possible to update the tx channels and Mux details?
Once again, thanks for a great site and all your hard work.

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Pete's 1 post GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:24 PM

Pete:

If you visit the UK website and enter your full post code, they will show you what are used for the multiplexes from your local transmitters.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:32 PM

lolaym18:

You post has nothing to do with TV . Kindly stop wasting our time.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

R

Robert Lee

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

10:28 AM

This is getting beyond a joke! Can't you do something about it, ?

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Robert Lee's 87 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:47 PM

Guys:

This website is not at all interested in football nor anything not relating to TV . Please stop spoiling this service for others having reception problems.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts PT flag

K

K Gardner
9:57 AM
Preston

Please clarify why poor signal strength/ from tx channel 55.

The Tv I receive from on channel 55, are all indicated on channel 31 from the web page for Winter Hill. Is the information here current ?
i.e. Tv channels 56,82,87,97,107,109,110

Channel 55 transmitter is indicated as 100kW, but quality for these TV channels (above) is 3 at best (but generally ) - postcode PR4 2BW

Signal quality is 10 from TV channels received from transmitter channels 31,37,49,50,54,56,58,59 which are all OK.

The problem is present on two televisions. Is channel 55 coverage different or lower power than advertised?

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K Gardner's 1 post GB flag

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

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:12 AM

K Gardner: According to UK COM6 is on UHF 37 at 100kW, COM7 is on at 22.9kW, COM8 is on at 22.6kW. The information at the top of this page doesn't seem to be have been updated to take account of recent changes yet.

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StevensOnln1's 3,670 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:42 PM

K Gardner:
If you click on the link for "digitaluk trade" at the bottom of your previous post, it will show you the predicted for you on the appropriate for each mux at .
COM7 (UHF55) and COM8 (UHF31) are indeed on a lower of 22.9kW and 22.6kW respectively.
There is no main mux on UHF56 currently, this is a local mux and is only being transmitted with 2kW!
Now, if you are picking up this local mux OK, it does suggest there are unlikely to be any major problems with your /coax, however bad/dirty connections at plugs and sockets etc have been known to mess up reception of an individual UHF channel, so it's worth just checking all your connections are clean and connecting ok. I'm assuming that you do have a aerial.
What is not helpful here, is you will see that the predicted reception for you for COM7 (UHF55) is much poorer than COM8. This will most likely be due to co-channel from other transmitters on UHF55 and other than checking your aerial alignment, there's unfortunately not a lot that you might be able to do to improve things.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:25 PM

K Gardner:

Further to that said by fellow contributors above, you may need to change your to a type to enable recepotion of all available . If you look at thwe uk website with your postcode, Coverage Checker - Detailed View you will see that a wideband aerial is now recommended and it also shows the actual channels being used to broadcast the TV . (Note that these are not the same as the Logical Channel Numbers used to identify each broadcast service, such as BBC 1 on LCN 1.)

You may qualify for some assistance, you can check by contacting on their website at www.freeview.co.uk/tvchanges or by ringing them on 0808 100 0288.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

Page 154

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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