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

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35- (585.8MHz)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C29 (538.0MHz)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C31 (554.0MHz)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C37 (602.0MHz)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LM
 H -20dB
C40 (626.0MHz)572mDTG-121,000W
Channel icons
from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester,

LL
 H -17dB
C24 (498.0MHz)572mDTG-122,000W
Channel icons
from 30th June 2014: 7 Bay TV Liverpool,

LPR
 H -20dB
C56 (754.0MHz)572mDTG-121,000W
Channel icons
from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire,

GIM
 H -20dB
C57 (762.0MHz)572mDTG-21,000W
Channel icons
 Now 90s,  Spotlight TV,  Clubland TV,  Country Music Entertainment ,  Classic Hits MCR, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 77 That's 60s MCR, 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?

regional news image
BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 22km southeast (140°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
regional news image
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?

1956-80s1984-971997-981998-20092009-132013-182013-1720 Feb 2020
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C9ITVwaves
C12BBCtvwaves
C24_local
C29SDN
C31com7com7
C32BBCA
C34D3+4
C35BBCB
C37com8com8
C40LOCAL2
C48C5wavesC5waves
C49tv_off ArqAArqA
C50tv_off BBCABBCA
C54tv_off-BBCB-BBCB-BBCB
C55tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesArqBArqBArqBcom7tv_off
C56tv_off_local_local_localLPR
C57tv_offGIMGIMGIMGIM
C58tv_offSDNSDNSDN
C59tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C61ArqA
C62BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCA
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area

May 1956-Jul 1968Granada Television†
May 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Granada Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Tuesday, 1 May 2018
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:37 AM

There is some engineering work at Winter Hill this week which might mean a weak signal from time to time and temporary loss of multiplex(es).
For those that have lost some muliplexes altogether, there was a retune event on March 7th which would have been advertised.
Go to Digital UK - Coverage checker and put in your postcode and tick "Detailed view". This will show you predicted reception and the current UHF channels for each multiplex.

Robert Lee: BBC News HD is still on the COM7 mux and is still on UHF55.

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Chris.SE's 4,103 posts GB flag
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

2:51 AM

MikeP: The Al Jazeera HD event is on now so I've grabbed the EITpf off Freesat, ASTRA and Freeview:

Freesat_pf:

Al Jazeera Eng, Tue 01 May 2018 02:00 - Tue 01 May 2018 03:00: The Coming War On China
Journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn't _ that the world's greatest military power, the U.S. may well be on the road to war with China.

ASTRA_pf:

Al Jazeera HD, Tue 01 May 02:00 - 03:00: The Coming War On China
Ep.2 Journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn't - that the world's greatest military power, the U.S. may well be on the road to war with China.

North West_BBC A_pf:

Al Jazeera Eng HD, Tue 01 May 02:00 - 03:00: The Coming War On China
Journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn't that the world's greatest military power, the U.S. may well be on the road to war with China.


We see an underscore character on Freesat; a dash or minus sign on ASTRA; and garbage on Freeview.

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js's 823 posts GB flag
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:19 AM

MikeP: All EIT title and description strings, for services on the DVB-T2 multiplexes, are Huffman coded.

I've had to modify my decoder to deal with these errant characters as follows.

Here, lastchar is the currently decoded byte and decode is the decoded string so far:


Select Case lastchar

Case &HA, &HD, &H20 To &H7E

decode = decode + Chr(lastchar)

Case &H19

decode = decode + "{'}"

Case &H13

decode = decode + "{-}"

Case Else

decode = decode + "{hex=" + Hex(lastchar) + "}"

End Select


I'm using the curly brackets to identify and locate the fixes in the output.

The output is an xmltv file.

If I try to open the uncorrected xmltv file in my xmltv viewer application, it responds with an error message giving the line number and position in the line of the error and refuses to proceed further.


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js's 823 posts GB flag
R
Robert Lee
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:13 AM

Just done a full autoscan of Panasonic TV and Humax and C55 has reappeared! Which begs the question why did it disappear yesterday, and why didn't a manual scan of C55 work?

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Robert Lee's 87 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 2 May 2018
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

1:20 AM

I thought that the duff characters appearing in the Freeview EPG were confined to the Huffman coded strings for services on the DVB-T2 multiplexes.

I've just noticed that the same duff characters are also in DVB-T EPG data.

I don't have a Freeview HD device so I asked if someone who has would report whether the suspect characters were rendered properly in the events I listed.

I'd like to thank all those who informed me whether or not that was the case.

Now I see these duffers on DVB-T, I can check myself, no longer needing your valuable assistance.

The duff apostrophe with code 0x19 appears in 349 events over the next 7 days.

Here is one such event:

Blaze, Fri 04 May 21:00 - 22:00: Flipping Bangers
Alfa Romeo: Gus and Will are after an Italian car. They can[0x19]t afford the true classics so they let they budget dictate the vehicle and settle on a 155 from the '90s.

So how did my LG telly render the [0x19] in what should read "can't"?

It completely ignored it, outputting "cant".

:

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js's 823 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 8 May 2018
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:12 AM

The bad characters in the Freeview EIT are spreading.

The latest offender is BBC Manchester:

BBC Manchester, Thu 10 May 12:00 - 15:00: Becky Want
Becky chats to George Costigan about Long Day{'}s Journey Into Night which is on at Home.

Here we see {'}, which I have inserted in place of byte 0x19 to indicate an apostrophe was intended.

As it happens, 0x2019 is the Unicode for 'RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK'

And guess what?:

Sony Crime Channel, Sat 12 May 20:00 - 21:00: Person of Interest
No Good Deed: Reese and Finch{'}s lives are put in danger when their next person of interest stumbles upon the existence of {L'}The Machine{R'}. (S1 Ep22)

Where I have inserted {L'} in place of byte 0x18 and {R'} in place of byte 0x19.

As it happens, 0x2018 is the Unicode for 'LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK'


And hows about this then:

Al Jazeera Eng HD, Thu 10 May 21:00 - 22:00: Al-Nakba
Four-part series on the history of Palestine and the events of 1948 {-} a year which the Palestinians refer to as the {L'}nakba', or catastrophe.

Where I have inserted {L'} in place of byte 0x18 and {-} in place of byte 0x13 to represent a dash or minus sign.

As it happens, 0x2013 is the Unicode for 'EN DASH'


None of these bytes are valid according to the DVB spec:

Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Specification for Service Information (SI) in DVB systems:

http://www.etsi.org/deliv….pdf

See Annex A: Coding of text characters.




The current culprits:

There are 388 bad characters over the next 8 days; this list is just an example from each of the services involved:

Food Network, Mon 14 May 07:45 - 08:15: Bake with Anna Olson
Morning Treats: Pastry Chef Anna Olson demonstrates how to make three classic breakfast treats. These recipes are so delicious, they{'}ll make you want to jump out of bed. (S3 Ep20)

Travel Channel, Tue 15 May 06:25 - 06:45: Garage Gold
The Garage Brothers don{'}t charge for clearing clutter, but they get to keep any valuables they unearth - and maybe even turn a profit from selling them on. (S6 Ep12)

movies4men, Mon 14 May 07:00 - 08:10: The de Havilland Comet
A documentary which charts the history and development of the world{'}s first commercial jet airliner - the British-built de Havilland Comet.

Sony Crime Channel, Mon 14 May 17:00 - 18:00: Person of Interest
No Good Deed: Reese and Finch{'}s lives are put in danger when their next person of interest stumbles upon the existence of {L'}The Machine{R'}. (S1 Ep22)

True Entertainment, Wed 16 May 00:30 - 01:30: Tenko
Disease sweeps through the camp, prompting some prisoners to contemplate a daring plan. Meanwhile, Sally and Nellie{'}s blossoming friendship becomes a source of gossip. (S1 Ep7)

TBN UK, Tue 15 May 22:30 - 23:00: The Potter's Touch
Featuring the ministry of Bishop T.D. Jakes as he tackles today{'}s topics and issues by offering practical and spiritual solutions to life{'}s toughest questions.

truTV, Tue 15 May 12:00 - 13:00: The Devil You Know
The Family Man: As women are attacked on the streets of Florida, a young mother begins to have suspicions about her husband. Melissa{'}s life is turned upside down when she learns his secret. (S4 Ep7)

Sony Crime Channel +1, Sun 13 May 03:00 - 03:55: Manson's Missing Victims
Charles Manson and his followers committed nine murders, but was that all? Those involved and those who have studied Manson don{'}t think so. This documentary investigates the alleged missing victims.

YourTV, Tue 15 May 20:00 - 21:00: Castle
When the Bough Breaks: Castle{'}s agent approaches him with a career changing opportunity, but it would mean the end of his relationship with Beckett. (S2 Ep5)

TCC, Sat 12 May 03:30 - 04:00: Cajun Pawn Stars
Buy George!: A 1790's pocket watch from Founding Father George Washington is brought into the shop. And later, will one of Louisiana{'}s first swamp boats prove to be a good buy?

FreeSports, Tue 15 May 17:15 - 19:15: World Rallycross
Belgium: Coverage of the FIA World RX season held on tracks made of asphalt and gravel. Some of the world{'}s best drivers race in cars capable of 0-60mph in 1.9 seconds.

Al Jazeera Eng HD, Tue 15 May 13:00 - 14:00: Al-Nakba
Four-part series on the history of Palestine and the events of 1948 {-} a year which the Palestinians refer to as the {L'}nakba', or catastrophe.

POP, Tue 15 May 23:00 - 23:15: Talking Tom and Friends
The Famous Monster: Talking Tom faces some serious drama after acing Talking Angela{'}s commercial audition. (S1 Ep38)

Tiny Pop, Tue 15 May 17:15 - 17:30: Ranger Rob
Ranger Ready: A test run of a new ride at Big Sky Park puts Rob{'}s ranger rescue skills to the test. (S1 Ep8)

POP Max, Sun 13 May 17:02 - 17:33: Pokemon: Black & White - Rival Destinies
Clash of the Connoisseurs!: While pursuing Ash{'}s eighth Unova Gym badge, our heroes are summoned to a place where Cilan{'}s Connoisseur skills are in high demand! (S15 Ep32)

POP+1, Wed 16 May 00:00 - 00:15: Talking Tom and Friends
The Famous Monster: Talking Tom faces some serious drama after acing Talking Angela{'}s commercial audition. (S1 Ep38)

Sports Channel Network, Wed 09 May 00:00 - 06:00: Extreme Sailing Series
Extreme Sailing Series attracts some of the world{'}s top sailors, racing the hydro-foiling GC32 catamarans on short courses around the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

ADULT Studio 66, Wed 16 May 00:00 - 03:00: Studio 66 Nights
Watch, Listen and Interact with the UK{'}s hottest models daily. (all 18+)

BBC Manchester, Thu 10 May 12:00 - 15:00: Becky Want
Becky chats to George Costigan about Long Day{'}s Journey Into Night which is on at Home.

RNIB Connect, Sat 12 May 12:00 - 13:00: TED Radio Hour
Showcasing important ideas and inspiring stories from some of the world{'}s most remarkable minds



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js's 823 posts NL flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:48 PM

js: Whilst I'm unable to explain the reason for what you are seeing, I note that most of those channels are on Multiplexes operated by Arqiva with the exception of 4 that I spotted which were on COM4.
Maybe you could try contacting Arqiva to see if they could shed any light on the issue, they may be able to point you towards a contact for those that aren't operated by them.

Just another thought, are you able to reproduce those errors on another device so that you can eliminate the possibility of some bug that's cropped up on your receiver.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,103 posts GB flag
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:52 PM

Chris.SE: Thanks for taking the trouble to reply.

I would be grateful if you could check the events I listed to confirm the errors are present on your Freeview device.

I did check on an LG TV and the code that corresponds to an apostrophe was ignored, so that what should be "can't" became "cant".

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js's 823 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 9 May 2018
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

1:29 AM

Chris.SE: The responsibility lies with Digital UK.

"Digital UK provides day-to-day technical management of the Freeview Electronic Programme Guide (EPG)"

http://www.digitaluk.co.u….pdf

Freesat and BSkyB evidently know how to manage the EPG data they receive from service providers:

Freesat:
Sony Crime, Mon 14 May 17:00 - 18:00: Person of Interest
No Good Deed: Reese and Finch's lives are put in danger when their next person of interest stumbles upon the existence of 'The Machine'. (S1 Ep22)

BSkyB:
Sony Crime, Mon 14 May 17:00 - 18:00: Person of Interest
No Good Deed: Reese and Finch's lives are put in danger when their next person of interest stumbles upon the existence of 'The Machine'. (S1 Ep22)

Freeview:
Sony Crime Channel, Mon 14 May 17:00 - 18:00: Person of Interest
No Good Deed: Reese and Finch{'}s lives are put in danger when their next person of interest stumbles upon the existence of {L'}The Machine{R'}. (S1 Ep22)


I would expect Freeview devices to ignore the incorrect codes, rendering what should be "Finch's" as "Finchs" and "'The Machine''" as "The Machine".


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js's 823 posts GB flag
Monday, 14 May 2018
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:44 PM

Tnlywlnlayy:

This website is NOT about football so please stop wasting our time, and yours, with irrelevant junk. It is ONLY about TV reception problems.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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