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

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps53.625,-2.516 or 53°37'30"N 2°30'56"Wsa_postcodeBL6 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 18/11/2024 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), 71 That’s 60s,

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 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)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
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)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, 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?

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
Monday, 28 January 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:39 PM

Peter Whitehead:

I'm hoping someone else might offer a feasible explanation, but at the moment it seems odd. Whilst you have line of sight to all the surrounding transmitters, other than Winter Hill only Moel-y-parc will be using UHF 55&56 and it isn't at present.
You are however surrounded my mobile phone masts, so whether this is due to interference from 4G transmissions from them is difficult to say. In the absence of any other information, I'd suggest contacting AT800 - at800 | 4G & Freeview | 4G interference | 4G Filters | 800 MHz on 0808 1313800 - at800 | 4G & Freeview | 4G interference | 4G Filters | 800 MHz contact-us/ and see if they can supply you with a free filter which might (note might) help resolve the situation. Other than anything that comes to light, good luck with this.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 29 January 2019
W
wrren
5:55 PM

hi
Is there any way of bringing site mod's attention to inappropriate posts?

link to this comment
wrren's 11 posts GB flag
Thursday, 7 February 2019
R
Rob
8:35 PM

Hi,

Do you know if Winter Hill has reduced the power recently of Com7 and Com8? Or how I could find out? My Humax freeview box recently (couple of weeks perhaps, FY55LR, aerial on roof) did it's automatic retune and lost all channels from these multipelxes. Up until then I'd sometimes get reduced strength on these channels but now there's nothing, even a manual tune doesn't find anything and the strength meters show 0. My parents box nearby can receive them ok?

Any ideas? Many thanks for the great site. :)


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Rob's 2 posts GB flag
Friday, 8 February 2019
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:52 AM

Rob:

There has not been any change in the output power of any transmitter - they cannot be turned up or down at all. Only during engineering work are there ever any changes and only for the duration of the work. That is for the health and safety of the engineers working up the masts.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
R
Rob
3:32 PM

Thanks for the quick response. I'm wondering if a nearby waste water pumping station is affecting the signal as there's been times when from a perfect signal it will go choppy then disappear altogether. Would buying a filter and/or booster help do you think? Anything to look out for (makes etc?)

Rob

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Rob's 2 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:55 PM

Rob:

Water pumping stations do not cause the sort of problems you are experiencing, unless there is a serious electrical fault with their equipment. The operators would be able to check.

Neither a filter nor a booster would help unless you are close to another type of transmitter. The channels used by Winter Hill are very unlikely to be affected by 4G signals which are in the 800 MHz range, well away from Freeview signals. A booster is never needed unless the signal strength is low, so check on the manual tuning page what the strengths are - but DO NOT RETUNE. Ideally you should have between 60% and 85%, both less and more is likely to give problems.

So do some careful checks and report back, please?



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Saturday, 9 February 2019
M
Mazbar
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:16 PM

Rob: unlike what has been said 4g can cause interference but it is normal to cause interference if it is very close to you, ie the mobile mast is within 1/2 a mile of you. The most likely cause is all the trees around you. Get a professional aerial installer to have a look at your system.

link to this comment
Mazbar's 384 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:59 PM

Mazbar:

The frequencies used for 4G are far too far away from those used by the Winter Hill transmitter to be the cause of interference. It may do so if the wanted TV channels were mainly in the region of channels in the high 50's or above.Despite fears that it would cause a lot of problems, very few people have been troubled by 4G interference.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Sunday, 10 February 2019
M
Mazbar
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:17 AM

MikeP: that's funny why then did half of a local village lose tv picture when a 4g transmitter went live near me. It was so powerful all tv pictures where lost. Every frequency went off. Filters didn't work the only thing that did work was labgear mastheads that have a 45db rejection on 4g. You do post a lot on hear but some of the things you post are wrong. You are trying to help people but sometimes you are not giving the right answer.

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Mazbar's 384 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:43 PM

Mazbar:

It was because of the closeness of the 4G transmitter. In the case under consideration, there is no such transmitter close by, so not a problem.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
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