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.

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

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-	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?

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:01 PM

Anonymous:

To answer that we need a full post code, just the first part is not enough to trigger the details.

Note though that the is listed as possibly being on reduced , which often causes TV sets to complain of .

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

A

anthony
5:00 PM

I can confirm that all ten multiplexes from are normal in SW Manchester at the moment. I have noted various comments on this site and Spy regarding low levels and as a result have checked several times and have yet to see a power reduction. Any power reduction are probably minor and very brief. Consequently they should no be noticeable on systems with a properly installed in good working order.

The serves over 7 million people, if there was a genuine problem both these sites would be flooded with complaints. Tree growth is the main reason for signal loss together with water damage to the aerial and its feeder.

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anthony's 7 posts GB flag

M

Mr R, Rigby
7:12 AM

when will we have ch. 87 country tv

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Mr R, Rigby's 2 posts GB flag

R

Richard Cooper

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

10:07 AM
Norwich

Mr R, Rigby: Hi, Mr R Rigby. The 'Keep It Country' tv channel is already available from the at Rivington Moor near Bolton on Channel 87. It could be that you haven't carried out a re-tune recently and so your tv hasn't registered it automatically. Older tvs and set-top boxes need to have a retune carried out on them to pick up new when they are added to , whereas newer ones tend to pick up new channel automatically. By the way, Keep It Country is transmitted as one of a group of high definition (HD) channels and so you need an HD television or HD set top box in order to pick it up. You will not be able to receive the channel on a definition (SD) television or set top box. the above information is helpful, Richard, Norwich.

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Richard Cooper's 471 posts GB flag

Richard's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

A

Alan
9:37 AM
Manchester

About 2 weeks ago I lost all the itv on all my tv's and no matter how many times I retuning them I can't get any itv channels, I can get all the bbc ones and strangely I can hey e4 plus one but not e4 and quest plus one but not quest ??? Postcode M28 3AF walkden area.

Thank you

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Alan's 1 post GB flag

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

R

Richard Cooper

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:55 PM
Norwich

Alan:Hi, Alan. First of all, we need you to confirm that you are using the on Rivington Moor near Bolton to receive your tv signals. This would mean that your is pointing -North-West from your house. UK is currently stating that viewers may possibly be getting a weak from Winter Hill which would suggest to me that some sort of works are going on there. I take it that you've checked things like aerial pointing in the right direction (- an aerial can swing round 'offline'), the condition of the from the aerial into the house, the condition of the connection at the -plate aerial socket in the living room, the condition of the connection of the fly-lead to the plug going into the wall plate socket and the condition of the connection at the aerial plug where it is plugged into your tv. It's important that you check all these things so that your own installation can be ruled out of the equation before we 'blame' the transmitter! Richard, Norwich. PS Quest +1 and Quest are on different multiplexes and so the transmitter work could be affecting one but not the other!

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Richard Cooper's 471 posts GB flag

Richard's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

Mr R, Rigby
3:12 PM

my post code should receive 87 kic country unable to on winterhill

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Mr R, Rigby's 2 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:40 PM

Mr R, Rigby: Do you have BBC One HD on channel 101? Although Keep It Country is a SD channel it is broadcast on a HD so a HD tuner is required to view it.

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StevensOnln1's 3,670 posts GB flag

J

Joe
2:13 PM

Hi
TVs working perfectly fine Saturday 27th August, Sunday morning and still no signal today.
Postcode L41AG, few neighbours in street also have no signal.

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Joe's 1 post GB flag

D

Dave McAlister
2:20 PM
Thornton-cleveleys

Until recently I was getting all the HD from COM 7 HD .
I have two receivers (1) new Samsung tv (2) Humax Freeview Play
recorder.I have re scanned both a number of times with no success. I manually
searched channel 31 but found nothing. My post code is FY5 1SN house number 370

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Dave McAlister's 2 posts GB flag

Dave's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Page 134

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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