Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 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 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 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 | |||||
| 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-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 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C12 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C24 | _local | ||||||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C40 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C48 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C49tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C50tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | -BBCB | -BBCB | -BBCB | ||||||
| C55tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | com7tv_off | ||
| C56tv_off | _local | _local | _local | LPR | |||||
| C57tv_off | GIM | GIM | GIM | GIM | |||||
| C58tv_off | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C59tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C61 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C62 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | |||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
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 GranadaWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area
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Wednesday, 12 June 2019
J
js5:13 AM
EIT errors update.
There are 1364 events, whose title or description or both, contain invalid codes, in the current Freeview EIT off DVB-T multiplexes from Winter Hill.
Having failed to get through to Digital UK, I tried this route:
Radio & Television Investigation Service - Diagnostic form
with the Tell the BBC' option specifying "Which BBC service?" as "EPG".
This is was my message:
**********
Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North West multiplex BBC A.
See https://pastebin.com/KCQXirUA for an explanation and complete list.
See also:
Winter Hill (Bolton, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy
Winter Hill (Bolton, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy
An independent confirmation here:
"Unknown unicode character in EPG title crashes scheduled rec"
SmartDVB
**********
That was a week ago and nothing has changed.
I had set the paste at pastebin.com to expire in 7 days, so that has now been removed, but, here is the current version:
https://pastebin.com/DJpnCdpw
As I explained in the ukfree.tv links above, the EITs off the BBCA and BBCB multiplexes differ.
Here is the full list of errors showing how most of the BBCA EIT errors have been inadvertently 'fixed' by the omission of the offending characters, leaving grammatical errors in their stead:
https://pastebin.com/nL3DHQhP
Note that the event times in this list are in GMT.
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Sunday, 16 June 2019
C
Chris.SE2:59 AM
js:
You've never commented on whether you had any success contacting Arqiva directly as I suggested about this issue.
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J
js6:39 AM
Chris.SE: Responsibility for the Freeview EPG lies with Digital UK.
It has nothing to do with Arqiva as it's not a transmission fault.
The same errors are present in the com7 EIT, which has to be exactly the same everywhere for the SFN on UHF55 to work.
It seems likely that the same buggy software is being used by certain services to process their EPG data.
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Monday, 24 June 2019
C
Chris.SE8:36 AM
js:
Whilst the responsibility for the EPG is with DigitalUK, this does not detract from the fact that I've not seen any reports elsewhere about this issue and don't get these errors on my transmitter. How do you know it's not a transmission fault at Winter Hill? You've previously said that you've not had any satisfactory response from DigitalUK, so a conversation with Arqiva MIGHT possibly move this issue forward. Or have you had some updated information that you haven't mentioned?
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J
js6:48 PM
Chris.SE: You say you don't see these errors.
I would be grateful if you would check for this error:
Adele Roberts is on BBC Radio 1 weekdays at 04:00 and nearly always has "Adele's got you," at the start of the programme description.
If the Freeview EPG shows "Adeles got you," with no apostrophe then you are seeing these errors.
If the Freeview EPG shows "Adele's got you," with the apostrophe then I will accept that the errors may be Winter Hill only.
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Saturday, 13 July 2019
J
J Holden5:56 PM
I am searching for a indoor aerial. I live 21.8 miles from Winter Hill. Any recommendations appreciated. Thank you
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MikeP
8:05 PM
8:05 PM
J Holden:
An indoor aerial will be useless at that distance from the transmitter, so don't waste your money on one. You would do far better to have a proper external aerial installed.
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Sunday, 14 July 2019
C
Chris.SE7:08 AM
J Holden:
If as MikeP has assumed you mean a "set-top" type aerial you will most likely be wasting money as he's said, but there are some around that have built in amplifiers as well which you MIGHT get away with but you'll have to search the market to see what's available at the time.
If you are thinking along the lines of a loft aerial then it'll just be a conventional aerial which you could get from a reputable seller BUT you should check your predicted reception first by putting your postcode into Digital UK - Coverage checker
If all the multiplexes are green and in the high 90's-100 then you could be ok.
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Thursday, 1 August 2019
C
Chris.SE9:14 PM
js:
My apologies for taking so long to come back, I had been forgetting to look for any similar errors on an occasional basis. I have managed to do that now and again.
Yes I see "Adeles got you" without the apostrophe. However in my EPG I'm seeing no other errors, no funny characters, apostrophies are appearing in other places (in R1 listings as well as elsewhere) so to me it would "appear" to be just a typo. But your analysis obviously shows otherwise.
I'm wondering if it's down to the receiver software as to whether such errors show up as odd characters or whether "suspect" characters just get omitted. I'm afraid I don't have the equipment (or knowledge at this time) to analyse this myself, but it certainly looks as though it's not restricted to Winter Hill.
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Saturday, 17 August 2019
S
Stephane Swainson4:02 PM
Why Can I not get Magic TV on my television. This a good programme and watched by loads of poeple especially the young. We are missing out.
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