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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

_______

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?

Comments

Friday, 28 August 2020

Andy Donaldson
5:54 AM

Chris.SE:
Thanks again Chris, and I'd realised what you meant with regards to the after I'd looked it up . The set didn't have any of the carried on COM7 so I tried a manual tune for that (2 in fact - 1 for the Channel number and one for the frequency, in case I'd messed up) - the set found 0 channels both times, which I assume is what you expected? I will recheck connections (the only join, which I'd forgotten about, between and tv is a 2m length of Webro WF100 connected using F type connectors and a barrel).

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Andy Donaldson's 5 posts GB flag

Saturday, 29 August 2020

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:19 AM

Andy Donaldson:

OK, yes was likely to be expected in the circumstances. That bit of is fine, apart from checking connections then, I should have mentioned make sure you don't have any HDMI leads close to your leads as they've been known to cause some times especially to . So you've got all that you need to have a moan at the installer and tell him that the installation is not good enough and he should sort it out with a decent aerial that'll gives the signal strengths required - you never know you might even get COM7!

What's a particular pain is that there shouldn't have been any real degradation with the final changes, the lower frequencies generally propagate better!
Let us know how it goes, or if you have any further problems /queries.

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Chris.SE's 4,346 posts GB flag

Andy Donaldson
6:21 AM

Chris.SE:
Firstly, thank you so much for your, it is really appreciated! There is an HDMI running parallel with the WF100, for around 12 inches, so I'll move that and also take the extension out of the run and re-check. Then, as you say, it's time to contact the installer. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

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Andy Donaldson's 5 posts GB flag

Wednesday, 9 September 2020

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

5:32 AM

It is four weeks since the BBCA was switched off but the data for that is still being transmitted.

This useless transmission is using a significant amount of bandwidth on each of the North multiplexes.

It is present also in the Com7 National EIT and SDT.

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js's 841 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

7:24 AM

So, there is full 8 day schedule data for a complete but non-existent BBCA being transmitted.

This BBCA still occupies LCNs 751-777, in The Twilight Zone:

Tables read from transport stream 233A.1048

UTC_time = 09/09/2020 04:45:45

networkName = North
networkID = 302A
NIT version number = 30
number of multiplexes in the NIT = 12
number of multiplexes in the SDT = 18
number of SDT = 320

List by SDT :

BBC A
ONID.TSID = 233A.1048
562 MHz, uhf 32, 8 MHz, 64-QAM, 8k, 2/3, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West)U(GBR.Isle of Man)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
001 1048 01 BBC ONE N West
002 10BF 01 BBC TWO
009 11C0 01 BBC FOUR
201 1200 01 CBBC
202 1240 01 CBeebies
231 1100 01 BBC NEWS
232 1280 01 BBC Parliament
250 1140 01 BBC Red Button
601 1C00 01 BBC RB 1
700 1A40 02 BBC Radio 1
701 1700 02 BBC R1X
702 1A80 02 BBC Radio 2
703 1AC0 02 BBC Radio 3
704 1B00 02 BBC Radio 4
705 1600 02 BBC R5L
706 1640 02 BBC R5SX
707 1680 02 BBC 6 Music
708 16C0 02 BBC Radio 4 Ex
709 1740 02 BBC Asian Net.
710 1780 02 Sv.
719 1808 02 BBC Manchester
720 1848 02 BBC Lancashire
721 1849 02 BBC Cumbria
722 1888 02 BBC Merseyside
726 1845 02 BBC Stoke
)

BBC A
ONID.TSID = 233A.1068
706 MHz, uhf 50, 8 MHz, 64-QAM, 8k, 2/3, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West)U(GBR.Isle of Man)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
751 1068 01 BBC ONE N West
752 10B7 01 BBC TWO
755 11E0 01 BBC FOUR
756 1220 01 CBBC
757 1260 01 CBeebies
758 1120 01 BBC NEWS
759 12A0 01 BBC Parliament
760 1160 01 BBC Red Button
761 1C20 01 BBC RB 1
762 1A60 02 BBC Radio 1
763 1720 02 BBC R1X
764 1AA0 02 BBC Radio 2
765 1AE0 02 BBC Radio 3
766 1B20 02 BBC Radio 4
767 1620 02 BBC R5L
768 1660 02 BBC R5SX
769 16A0 02 BBC 6 Music
770 16E0 02 BBC Radio 4 Ex
771 1760 02 BBC Asian Net.
772 17A0 02 BBC World Sv.
773 1828 02 BBC Manchester
774 1868 02 BBC Lancashire
775 1869 02 BBC Cumbria
776 18A8 02 BBC Merseyside
777 1865 02 BBC Stoke
)

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js's 841 posts RO flag

Thursday, 10 September 2020

av7
12:33 AM
Manchester

I have good (85% strength, 100% ) for all muxes except COM7 & GMAN which have always been patchy, now I can't receive them at all. I think I could receive the on COM8 a few months ago before it was switched off but don't quote me on that. My is in the and is as old as the house (20 years). Any recommendations for a new aerial that will provide good signal for those two muxes?

Thanks in advance!

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av7's 3 posts GB flag

av7's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:57 AM

av7:

We really need a full postcode to look at the predicted at your location.
If your is an old Group C/D that would explain why the GMAN (GI) mux is a problem as it moved to UHF , but I would also have expected you to be having problems with the L_MAN mux on and possibly COMs 4 & 5 on & as well as may be other multiplexes being weaker than before due to out of Group reception. However that doesn't explain the issue with COM7 which should still be the same as before as it remains on and there's purportedly been no change in .

If you are getting the BBCA mux and the D3&4 mux on & now with any occasional break-up that you didn't have before, then if you don't have or , you might qualify for a free replacement aerial. If so ring on 0808-100-0288.
You technically need a Group T/ aerial to get all the muxes from but the on lower is not as good as the higher ones, so a lot depends on predicted reception.

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Chris.SE's 4,346 posts GB flag

av7
10:46 AM
Manchester

Chris.SE:
Thank you so much for your prompt reply. I saw "your location is noted as M221TQ" and thought that would be visible to you. I have just checked and if L_MAN is the mux with just 'That's Manchester' on channel number 7 then my ( DTR-T2100) has picked that up (as "That's TV") but there is just a black screen with a "" message. COM7 & GMAN channels are all absent and I'm missing at least 1 channel from COM5 (78 - Now 70s) but others on this mux (e.g 38 - Quest Red) are there and have excellent signal, so I'm even more confused now.

My mother who lives in M201BB can receive all COM7 & GMAN channels with good signal (~80%) but she had a new aerial installed 2 years ago and this is mounted on the . However she did say occasionally there is brief loss of signal on Now 70s so I am wondering what is different about this channel to the others on COM5, unless it has now moved to COM7 or GMAN?

Any further/advice is greatly appreciated.

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av7's 3 posts GB flag

av7's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Sunday, 13 September 2020

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:45 AM

av7:

Now 70s is on the G-MAN not COM5. To see which are on which multiplex see Channel listings | Freeview

I'm afraid the G-MAN mux is not known for its reliability, on a number of occasions it has transmitted garbage - the quickest cure I've found in the past is to phone TV Warehouse when they are on air (assuming the is garbled) and tell them you can't watch because there's a fault. They know exactly who to contact, it's usually a configuration issue that can be fixed within an hour!!

The Detailed Coverage Checker shows that for yours and your mother's postcodes you should have excellent of all those multiplexes (PSBs1-3, COMs4-7 & G-MAN and L-MAN).

Your particular issue sounds like a set "memory" problem which on a normal TV is often cured by running an automatic retune with the unplugged (this clears all previous tuning as nothing is found) and then repeating the retune with the aerial back in. In cases where several transmitters might be received, the last retune ideally should be a manual one.
However that trick doesn't work on boxes! They don't even allow manual tuning IIRC, I think you have to do a reset, which might mean you have to redo any scheduled recordings, but check carefully first. I think there's a Maintenance and you'd pick the "Reset / Keep Recordings" option but I don't know if it includes future scheduled recordings.

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Chris.SE's 4,346 posts GB flag

av7
10:44 AM
Manchester

Chris.SE:
Thanks Chris I'm going to try this shortly. Not bothered if I lose my scheduled recordings as there's not much on there so it won't take long to set those back up. I'll let you know how it goes.

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av7's 3 posts GB flag

av7's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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