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

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

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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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter.

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

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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-3	100,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) North West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 201 CBBC SD, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, 250 BBC Red Button, plus 16 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C34 (578.0MHz)	726m	DTG-3	100,000W
	3 ITV (SD) (Granada), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5 (SD), 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 24 ITV4, 33 ITV +1 (Granada), 45 Film4 +1,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35- (585.8MHz)	726m	DTG-6	100,000W
	86 More4 +1, 101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 102 BBC Two HD (England), 103 ITV HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 204 CBBC HD,
COM4 SDN	H max	C29 (538.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	Spotlight TV, 12 Quest, 20 Drama, 21 5USA, 27 ITV2 +1, 30 5STAR, 34 ITV3 +1, 40 Movies4Men, 44 Channel 5 +1, 54 Paramount Network, 55 5SELECT, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 63 Blaze, 66 CBS Reality, 70 Horror Channel, 76 Quest +1, 77 TCC, 80 Blaze +1, 203 CITV, 211 Ketchup TV, plus 21 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C31 (554.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	11 pick, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 28 E4 +1, 32 Sony Movie Channel, 38 Quest Red, 41 Food Network, 46 Challenge, 72 YourTV, 89 Together TV, 233 Sky News, plus 10 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C37 (602.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	25 Yesterday, 29 4Music, 31 5Spike, 37 DMAX, 39 CBS Justice, 42 Home, 47 4seven, 71 CBS Drama, 73 Sewing Quarter, 79 Dave ja vu, 81 Talking Pictures TV, 235 AlJazeera English (SD), plus 16 others
LM	H -20dB	C56 (754.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	1,000W
	from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester,
LL	H -17dB	C56 (754.0MHz)	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,
com7	H -5.9dB	C55 (746.0MHz)	726m	DTG-6	25,700W
	Vintage TV, 57 5USA +1, 67 CBS Reality +1, 78 Quest Red +1, 92 Pick +1, 99 Smithsonian Channel HD, 107 BBC News HD, 108 Aljazeera English HD, 109 Channel 4+1 HD, 110 4seven HD, 113 RT HD, plus 2 others
com8	H -6.5dB	C31 (554.0MHz)	726m	DTG-6	22,600W
	CBS Action +1, 56 5STAR +1, 64 Freesports, 83 NOW 80s, 84 Now 90s, 91 PBS America, 93 Together TV +1, 96 Forces TV, 106 BBC Four HD, 114 Quest HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 2 others 111 QVC HD, 112 QVC Beauty HD,
GIM	H -20dB	C57 (762.0MHz)	572m	DTG-2	1,000W
	True Christmas 1, Tiny Pop +1, truTV, truTV +1, 60 Sony Crime Channel, 62 True Movies +1, 68 True Crime, 69 True Crime +1, 88 Clubland TV, 208 POP MAX, 209 Pop +1,

DTG-3 64QAM 8K 2/3 24.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-6 256QAM 32KE 2/3 40.2Mb/s DVB-T2 MPEG4
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 (139°)
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.

site development by Twelve Winds Consulting Ltd

How will the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1956-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2009	2009-13	10 Apr 13	2013-17	23 Oct 2019
	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	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}				+1	_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
C60_{tv_off}				+C
C61					ArqA
C62		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA
C63				+D
C65		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
C66				+2
C67				+B
C68				+A

_{tv_off} Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) by 30 June 2020 - 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 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?

J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:47 AM

UK (or is it just now) have some ZERO WIDTH SPACES on offer this week, courtesy of BBC 6 Music!

A short-form error summary follows:

Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North BBC A. Date: 2019/12/05 00:59:54

It has become apparent through observation that invalid bytes in the Freeview EIT text strings are the low-order bytes of the Unicode General Punctuation Block:

Of course only bytes less than 0x20 qualify as invalid codes in the context of EIT text strings.

Since about April 2018, the following invalid codes have been found in the Freeview EIT text items:

0x01, substitute: {0x01} -> Unicode Character: "EM QUAD" (U + 2001)
0x08, substitute: { } -> Unicode Character: "PUNCTUATION SPACE" (U + 2008)
0x0B, substitute: {} -> Unicode Character: "ZERO WIDTH SPACE" (U + 200B)
0x10, substitute: {-} -> Unicode Character: "HYPHEN" (U + 2010)
0x13, substitute: {--} -> Unicode Character: "EN DASH" (U + 2013)
0x14, substitute: {---} -> Unicode Character: "EM DASH" (U + 2014)
0x18, substitute: {L'} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2018)
0x19, substitute: {R'} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2019)
0x1C, substitute: {L''} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201C)
0x1D, substitute: {R''} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201D)

There are 976 invalid codes in the current EIT:
invalid code, count, percentage
0x08, 24, 2.46%
0x0B, 2, 0.20%
0x13, 4, 0.41%
0x18, 13, 1.33%
0x19, 887, 90.88%
0x1C, 23, 2.36%
0x1D, 23, 2.36%

There are 777 events with invalid codes in the current EIT.

The Culprits:
Format:
service_name, number of events containing errors

BBC 6 Music, 1
BBC Radio 4 Ex, 4
Blaze+1, 1
TCC, 1
ADULT Studio 66, 32
Planet Knowledge, 36
Sports Channel Network, 7
Sony Movies Action, 2
Ketchup TV, 47
RNIB Connect, 5
Sony Movies, 26
POP, 100
Al Jazeera Eng, 4
PBS America, 4
Sony Channel +1, 27
POP Max, 122
Sony Movies Christmas +1, 2
Tiny Pop, 72
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 31
Sony Movies Christmas, 3
Tiny Pop, 72
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 31
Sony Movies Christmas, 3
Tiny Pop, 72
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 31
Sony Movies Christmas, 3
PBS America +1, 8

Events with invalid codes in the eight-day EIT off multiplex BBC A at 2019/12/05 00:59:54:

#1: BBC 6 Music, Fri 06 Dec 21:00 - 00:00: title = "Tom Ravenscroft", description = "Tom chats to Ghanaian artist Bryte, and Ahadadream and SN?W provide a guest mix. He released his debut album {}{L''}Too Good For You Liking{R''}{} last year, and has relocated to the UK.", description error bytes: 0x0B, 0x1C, 0x1D, 0x0B

#2: BBC Radio 4 Ex, Thu 05 Dec 06:30 - 07:00: title = "I Have a Dream - Dr Martin...", description = "...Luther King. 4 Extra Debut. Global figures celebrate the legacy Dr Martin Luther King by reading the words of his {L''}I Have a Dream{R''} speech. From 2013.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D

...

#777: PBS America +1, Thu 12 Dec 20:35 - 21:40: title = "Gold: The Story of Man's...", description = "...6,000 Year Obsession: Grant Williams looks at gold{R'}s role throughout history: how it became money and its path through the rise and fall of empires and civilisations. (Part 1 of 2)", Huffman coded, description error byte: 0x19

Page 189

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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