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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
Wednesday, 8 April 2020
B
Bob McCulloch
7:38 AM
Lymm

Since Friday 3rd April 2020 our picture quality has deteriorated with freezing images of varying degrees and/or no signal on some channels that normally have perfect reception. Our post code is WA13 9JF and we have double checked ariel connections. Looking forward to hearing from you please.
Bob mcCulloch

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Bob McCulloch's 3 posts GB flag
Bob's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:42 PM

Bob McCulloch:

As per the post immediately before yours, the Planned Engineering may have been the cause. Some sets/devices will do automatic searches/retunes if they lose signals, or if you did one, it may well have picked up another weaker transmitter whilst some Winter Hill multiplexes were on reduced power or briefly off-air. There is no Planned Engineering listed this week (doesn't mean they aren't doing any!!) so one might expect things to be back to normal. The BBC aren't reporting any faults affecting their channels and Freeview aren't indicating any issues affecting reception.
Exactly which channels have you been having a problem with?

If you look at your set's tuning section and the signals on the main multiplexes look normal, you could try a retune to see if it restores the ones that you are having problems with, but try it this way - Unplug the aerial and do a full automatic retune which should clear all previous tuning as no channels will be found, then plug the aerial back in and repeat the same and hopefully all the correct channels will be restored.

A reminder when looking at you tuning section you should see specific UHF channels for Winter Hill for each of the multiplexes in the order listed as follows -
PSB1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD, COMs 4-6, COMs 7&8, Local G-MAN, Local L-MAN, Local L-LIV
UHF channels C32, C59, C54, C58, C49, C37, C55, C56, C57, C24, C21

You will also undoubtedly have PSB1/BBCA simulcasting on UHF C50 with the programmes at LCN751 et seq. in your EPG, this is so that those with older Group C/D aerials that can't get the BBC SD channels in their normal LCNs from UHF C32 have time to get free In Home support for a new aerial from Freeview - but that has been suspended at present because of the Covid-19 situation as has the the remaining 700MHZ clearance retune events.
For anyone in that situation, I don't know if they are putting affected people on a waiting list, you can try ringing them on 0808-100-0288

Just a further note for those within the reception area of the Preston Local mux L-PRN, it's on UHF C40.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Friday, 24 April 2020
P
Pete G, Altrincham
3:42 PM

Hi There,
Very confusing mux list at the moment (Winter Hill, April 24th 2020).
The list by TV channels shows shows COM5/ArqA & COM8 on C31, whereas the list of "How will Winter Hill frequencies change over Time" shows COM7 on C31. Likewise TV channels has COM6/ArqB on C37 but the frequencies over time has COM8 on C37.

I know we're in the middle of an interrupted change to free up 700Mhz but I'm trying to find some free channels for 3 DVB-T modulators and I I can't make out what is still due to change.

Also, will you be able to update the frequencies over time. Theres been a lot of changes in the past few months, but that table only shows up to 23 Oct 2019. This site has always been my goto site for this info, as nobody else is ever up to date.

Keep up the good work.

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Pete G, Altrincham's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:54 PM

Pete G, Altrincham:

As per several posts on this transmitter page and elsewhere on the site, the site owner has not had the time to keep up with all the changes due to the 700MHz clearance.
The current channel usage is in the post before yours.
The final channels after the final retune date tba, are -
For PSBs1-3 & COMs 4-8, UHF Channels 32, 34, 35, 29, 31, 37, 55, 56
& for Local muxes G-MAN, L-LIV, L-MAN, L-PTN, UHF Channels 27, 21, 24, 40.
Personally I'd use channels above 59 for the modulators.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Saturday, 25 April 2020
M
Mr K
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:31 PM

I've lost COM7 today (never had issues before) on both a Sony Android TV and a Panasonic HDD recorder.

Fylde coast Cleveleys using large Antiference RX20 Yagi rooftop aerial.

It was fine at 12 noon today (25th April) as I recorded News24 in HD for 35 minutes. When watched live at 1:30pm all HD channels on this MUX had gone. The Sony has auto deleted them from the YouView lineup and the Panasonic just reports 'No Signal'. A signal check on the Panasonic show 0% for all these channels, all other MUXES and channels are good.

No hint of reception issues before this.

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Mr K's 21 posts GB flag
Sunday, 26 April 2020
M
Mr K
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:06 AM

Just to update and say that these missing channels returned around 9pm shortly after I posted the above.

A BBC engineering page actually says that "COM7 CH55 reception variable you may not receive all these service..." when I put my address into it. Very odd. I'll see what happens today.



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Mr K's 21 posts GB flag
Monday, 27 April 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:32 AM

Mr K:

There had been a little bit of Tropospheric ducting around in previous days, didn't check the last couple of days. It may have been that causing a touch of disruption. One other thing to check, make sure you don't have any HDMI leads close to the Aerial downlead or any flyleads.
COMs 7&8 operate as SFNs so reception can be "variable" - not so good, in some locations.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:32 PM

Mr K:

Winter Hill is now listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible weak signal".

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 28 April 2020
M
Mr K
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:21 AM

Thanks for the info Chris, all is still good and levels have remained so since. A real mystery.

Out of curiosity I tried seeing how much attenuation the TV feed would stand before these missing channels became visibly pixelated/drop outs. I got to between 24 and 30db so very very odd that they all fell to zero on that day.



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Mr K's 21 posts GB flag
Monday, 22 June 2020
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:09 AM

com7 gutted:

Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 33 <= dPCR <= 37 ms intervals over 12 seconds for Arqiva C Com78 National (22/06/2020 10:30:29)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
06.582 | 03.007 | 04.345 | BBC NEWS HD
04.775 | 01.828 | 03.196 | Channel 4+1 HD
07.559 | 02.925 | 04.811 | 4seven HD
07.178 | 03.065 | 04.911 | TJC HD
03.091 | 01.261 | 02.027 | Quest Red+1
01.482 | 00.604 | 01.016 | More4+1
03.989 | 01.179 | 01.663 | CBS Reality +1
02.221 | 00.526 | 00.876 | 5USA+1
07.129 | 03.497 | 04.781 | RT HD
01.168 | 00.701 | 00.902 | Shopping Quarter
06.469 | 03.639 | 05.132 | Null Packets
04.549 | 01.810 | 03.166 | All Other Streams
36.825 | 36.825 | 36.825 | TS Bitrate

Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 33 <= dPCR <= 37 ms intervals over 12 seconds for Arqiva C Com78 National (22/06/2020 11:13:25)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
01.497 | 01.034 | 01.114 | BBC NEWS HD
04.048 | 01.577 | 02.218 | Quest Red+1
03.097 | 00.563 | 01.638 | More4+1
05.612 | 04.489 | 05.102 | RT HD
26.679 | 20.598 | 24.532 | Null Packets
04.630 | 01.091 | 02.221 | All Other Streams
36.825 | 36.825 | 36.825 | TS Bitrate

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js's 822 posts NL flag
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