Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 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 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 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 | |||||
| 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-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 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C12 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C24 | _local | ||||||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C40 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C48 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C49tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C50tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | -BBCB | -BBCB | -BBCB | ||||||
| C55tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | com7tv_off | ||
| C56tv_off | _local | _local | _local | LPR | |||||
| C57tv_off | GIM | GIM | GIM | GIM | |||||
| C58tv_off | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C59tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C61 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C62 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | |||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
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 GranadaWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area
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Sunday, 13 November 2016
J
Jim9:03 AM
Wirral
TVs affected by poor signal are 2 x Panasonic and one x Sony 4k (All under 2 years old) The aerials are band "C" and not wideband. Postcode is CH63 1JF 2 aerials are 13 element and one is 18 element. Suspect wideband aerials would cure the problem!
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Jim's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB11:30 AM
Jim: Have you actually checked your system first? Is the signal due to having the wrong aerial (but wouldn't that be a problem right from the day it was put up?), or is it due to a problem within your own system, hence the low power.
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Wednesday, 23 November 2016
D
Don10:04 PM
PSB2 Dissapeared alltogether at 9:50-ish am Wednesday 23 November from my main house tv fed by an outside antenna which has an unobstructed view of winter hill !
I have been having problems with my secondary set loosing PSB2 which is attached to a loft mounted 12 element antenna. Over the last few weeks.
Did anybody else suffer the outage this am ?
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M
MikeB11:23 PM
Don: Since there doesn't seem to be any problems with the transmitter, its really down to you. Systems fail, cables fray, and water gets in stuff. Check the system and work your way back to the aerials.
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Sunday, 27 November 2016
M
Mike Brookes11:27 AM
Church Stretton
Our postcode is SY6 7BP for last 12 years receiving best signal from Winter Hill (although we should in theory get better reception from Midlands transmitter we're situated right under Hazler Hill transmitter). In Dec 15 we had new Sony tv and Panasonic PVR. We quite recently did a channel update reset. Very few problems until last weekend 18th/19th Nov when BBC1 and BBC2 suddenly pixelated and no signal' came up; other BBC channels were the same but ITV etc were ok. Lasted about 24 hours. All BBC channels then ok until last night when same thing happened (in middle of Strictly! although luckily we were able to switch to Catch-up and watch without problem which seemed peculiar in itself). Winter Hill online reported no current problems each time.
What's the best course of action to get to the bottom of the problem? Do you understand it? Can you help with advice? Many thanks.
| link to this comment |
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
A
Anthony8:26 PM
Church Stretton
On the Sony you can check the signal strength and the channel being received by means of the Options button, scroll down to System Information. The set may have picked up the wrong transmitter during the retune or your aerial may have been damaged by the recent gales. More information about tuning via the white iManual button. You may have to do a manual retune if it keeps picking the wrong transmitter.
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Anthony's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB11:04 PM
Mike Brooks: Anthony's advice is excellent - I'm just wondering what sort of signal strength you've enjoyed, being so far from Winter Hill.
As for why you can watch Iplayer fine, its simply because its via the internet, and has nothing at all to do with your aerial.
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Wednesday, 30 November 2016
A
A.J.11:34 AM
In reply to Mike Brookes, Church Stretton: these reception problems at your location probably had nothing to do with either your aerial system, mis-tuned channels, nor a problem at Winter Hill. As you are most definitely located in what engineers refer to as a fringe area for uhf tv signals from the Winter Hill site. These fringe areas are especially susceptible to what is known as tropospheric propagation, which particularly becomes a factor at this time of year during days of high pressure weather with fog/frost. This phenomenon can last for minutes, hours or even days at a time, and signals which are normally at good strength can be attenuated to virtually nothing even when using the highest gain aerials & amplifiers! Conversely, very often at these same times, distant UK transmitters can often be tuned in (which would normally not even register an ounce of signal on your TV). The only real solutions to here would be to retune your equipment to a nearer transmitter (which would mostly avoid these tropospheric effects), but then you would obviously lose the North West regionality, or you basically just tolerate these rarer 'weather' effects and keep your TV region of choice.
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Sunday, 4 December 2016
D
Don10:17 PM
MikeB: Thanks Mike , There is no possibility of water ingress as all the antenna and cables are indoors. The problem is definately temperature related , as soon as the temperature drops below zero my reception returns !
Ive bought a signal strength meter and will be checking both effected antenna for signal strength ...its a start !
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Friday, 9 December 2016
I have suddenly lost all access to com 7 channels. The only thing I noticed on previous days seemed to be a weakening and intermittent loss of the signal when watching talking pictures tv. I have retuned and ensured aerial connections are secured but since retuning I have now lost all access to com 7 channels on the tv guide. My postcode is WN2 5EB and aerial is in the loft. I have not had any real problems before now.
| link to this comment |
Anne's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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