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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
Friday, 18 October 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:30 PM

Brian Russell:

According to DigitalUK it is only the Local Muxes changing channel on the 23rd October. One is supposedly going to UHF21 another to UHF24, the third will be on UHF40. As has already been said, even some of DigitalUK's own documentation is confusing, but the Coverage Checker is believed to give the correct data.

If you put your postcode into the Coverage Checker About us | Freeview it will show you the predicted reception of available multiplexes at your location, also the channel and reception changes on the various dates. Don't forget any Local Multiplexes you might get will be towards the bottom of the page.

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 23 October 2019
Lee
6:07 PM

Chris.SE: I agree no changes yet to Winter Hill TX, as of 7pm 23rd.

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Lee's 5 posts GB flag
Thursday, 24 October 2019
John Buchanan
9:18 AM

It seems to me that the scheduled retune event did not take place on 23 October 2019.

I have retuned my devices and the channels have not changed.

The digitaluk web site is showing the old channel numbers and a retune event due in Jan - Mar 2020

link to this comment
John Buchanan's 12 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:46 AM

John Buchanan: The changes due yesterday at Winter Hill affected local TV multiplexes only. There were no changes planned for any of the main multiplexes. According to Digital UK, there will be 2 further retune events next year when several main multiplexes will change frequency.

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StevensOnln1's 3,606 posts GB flag
D
David Roberts
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:53 AM

As of October 23rd 2019,the Local Mux's are now off UHF CH56. MUX LM Manchester is on UHF CH24 and MUX LL Liverpool,is on UHF CH21. Not the best Frequecies to use as Divis from Northern Ireland,flies in here on the coast,even under the slightest High Barometric conditions. Interestingly,i can receive the Manchester Local MUX here in Colwyn Bay,so must assume that the Directional Aerial system is not in use?

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David Roberts's 23 posts GB flag
John Buchanan
10:28 AM

So the retune did not affect the main channels. Makes me wonder why I was getting pop-up messages for several days telling me that I would have to retune, and then my Youview box refused to operate properly unless I let it do a retune.

On top of that the local newspaper mentioned the need to retune, and I was also prompted through Facebook.

Much ado about nothing!

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John Buchanan's 12 posts GB flag
H
Helena Mountford
12:54 PM

I retuned on 23rd October and lost channel 48 (Sony) but still have channel 61 (Sony +1). I wonder why?

link to this comment
Helena Mountford's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:19 PM

Helena Mountford:

LCN61 is on the Manchester multiplex, whereas LCN48 should be on one (or all) of the other local multiplexes. Check your TV tuning section to see if you can manual tune on UHF channels 21, 24 & 40 for the local multiplexes. The Manchester multiplex is supposedly still on UHF57 at this time.
See also Channel listings | Freeview which will indicate which programme channels are on which multiplexes.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Friday, 25 October 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:04 AM

Helena Mountford:

Perhaps it might have been sensible to add that unless you have a Group T / Wideband aerial you may have difficulty in getting those Local multiplexes that have moved to UHF 21 & 24 and had a power reduction. The other mux is on UHF40 which you may be getting with an old group C/D aerial, but it'll also depend on where you are as predicted reception at your location may have changed. Whilst we know there are some errors in the DigitalUK documentation regarding the Local multiplexes, not being in your area I don't know what the differences are between the G-MAN and L-MAN multiplexes, there may indeed be nothing on UHF57.

We'd need a full postcode to offer any sensible advice on your best course of action.
Providing you don't have Satellite or Cable TV you might get free help by contacting the Freeview Advice line on 0808-100-0288 where they could offer to send an engineer to replace your aerial with a Group T / Wideband which is what you'll need to have satisfactory reception of all multiplexes after the retunes next year BUT you may have to wait until the BBC multiplexes move next year if you aren't predicted to get those local multiplexes any more.

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 5 November 2019
B
Buster
5:26 PM

Please stop playing with signal strength on winter hill transmitter you could cause a riot in Liverpool

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Buster's 1 post GB flag
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