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?

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:30 PM

John J:

It appears that the listing above is far from accurate. Some pages are currently giving the final 2020 as current, but this one is all over the place. At present, the best place to get correct channel information is Digital UK - Coverage checker and put in your postcode to list available transmitters.

Current channels are BBCA 50, D3&4 59, BBCB 54-, SDN(COM4) 58, ARQA(COM5) 49, ARQB(COM6) 37, COM7 55, COM8 31, various Local muxes on 56, 21, 40 (if you are close enough to the transmitter).

Retune events are due in the Q4 2019 for one local mux UHF56 to UHF24, others events are in Q1 2020 BBCA to UHF32 & COM8 to UHF56, and in Q2 2020 D3&4 to UHF34, BBCB to UHF35, SDN(COM4) to UHF29 & ARQA to UHF31.

So the final UHF channels in 2020 will be 32, 34, 35, 29, 31, 37, 55, 56 and local muxes 24, 21, 40. If you don't have a or T band aerial, if you aren't getting satisfactory on the lower UHF channels you may need to change it.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag

N

Nev Jack
7:51 AM

Nev Jack: the high pressure new year week certainly caused some havoc with my TV retuning itself nearly every day to either or for BBC and ITV where it could as some just too weak...the "rejects" ended up in the 800s section on my tv. luckily the HD channels stayed ensitu...seems to have settled down now, although there is a new high pressure predicted for this weds....
NJ,

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Nev Jack's 6 posts GB flag

J

John Heywood
11:21 AM
Oldham

I have and my bbc are pixelating. My other itv channels etc are ok. What is the problem?
My postcode is ol2 8ln

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John Heywood's 1 post GB flag

John's: ...

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:40 PM

John Heywood:

Please check all your cables and connections. Unplug all coaxial plugs/sockets and refit. Then check the but DO NOT RETUNE.

It could be a poor connection or it might just be the current atmospherics.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

A

Andrew Jamieson
1:35 PM

At the end of last year I had problems with on my bedroom tv, the signal was being fed from a splitter on the main outdoor , it had been perfect for many years.
I got the professionals in who advised a separate outdoor aerial for the bedroom tv. I got it fitted and the was perfect again. However, I am still unable to receive a number of including the 'Yesterday' channel, channel 19, that are together in group (channel) 37.
I have re-tuned a number of times without any luck whatsoever.
I purchased a signal and that has made no difference at all.
I should say that my main tv in the livingroom receives perfect picture and sound of all channels including 'Yesterday', channel 19.
I would appreciate any.

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Andrew Jamieson's 1 post GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:17 PM

Andrew Jamieson: What strength and readings do you get for Yesterday on your main TV? What signal strength and quality do you get for other commercial such as Dave or Drama? Please provide a full postcode so that we can see where you are in relation to the and your predicted coverage etc. Also, can you confirm that the separate for your bedroom TV is mounted on the or in the , or is it a set top aerial?

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StevensOnln1's 3,670 posts GB flag

B

brian
12:58 AM

What's best buy tv Arial for bb24qb

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brian's 1 post GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:54 AM

Brian:

A aerial is always advised these days. That will be able to receive all current and future transmissions.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

J

john richardson
11:33 AM

I'm a local installer in the bb post code. we use but at the far end of the m65 I've experienced loss and o think it's due to the large mountain of waste bro g dumped at accrington tip which is as high as a high as a lol ok. can it be investigated. sorry if the tex5 doesn't make sense but your site isn't good to type on my phone. my mobil number is 07999000418 aerial ace.com

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john richardson's 2 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:04 PM

john richardson: This website has no connection with any broadcaster or company. I'm also not sure the transmitter company can investigate anything to do with a landfill site.

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StevensOnln1's 3,670 posts GB flag

Page 163

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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