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 25/11/2024 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?

J

Jay
10:07 AM

js: thanks buddy, I find it hard to navigate via the chat on this website, maybe pre 2015 chat could be archived

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Jay's 12 posts GB flag

J

Jay
11:19 AM

js: only other place that is mentioning issues with com 7 and com 8 is the link below

Freeview down? Current outages and problems |

Down Detector

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Jay's 12 posts GB flag

J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

4:34 AM

Following yesterdays loss of com7 and com8 and the lack of any official report, I decided to log the signals more thoroughly.

The program I'm using is CrazyScan2: CrazyScan / Wiki / Info

CrazyScan2 was set to loop with auto-export, where it scans the RF spectrum and saves the result as a numbered png.

The number is the pass-number.

The time of the first pass was 07 December 2017, 23:42:22.

com7 disappeared at pass 43 - 08 December 2017, 00:00:36
com8 disappeared at pass 47 - 08 December 2017, 00:02:26
com7 reappeared at pass 142 - 08 December 2017, 00:46:48
com8 reappeared at pass 150 - 08 December 2017, 00:50:26

The time of the last pass, #350 was 08 December 2017, 02:18:50.

I have made a with a frame rate of two passes per second, which can be downloaded here:

loop.avi

File Size: 5.76MB

Free large file hosting. Send big files the easy way!

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J

Jay
7:20 AM

js: that looks quite hi tech, it's a shame they was no official report or with the ongoing situation with the signals about to change, good going.

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J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

2:13 AM

The retune events according to UK:

7 Mar 2018:

Com7 moves from UHF 31 to UHF 55
Com8 moves from UHF 37 to UHF 31
ArqB moves from UHF 55 to UHF 37

Oct - Dec 2019:

L-MAN moves from UHF 56 to UHF 24

Jan - Mar 2020:

Com8 moves from UHF 31 to UHF 56
BBCA moves from UHF 50 to UHF 32

Apr - Jun 2020:

ArqA moves from UHF 49 to UHF 31
BBCB moves from UHF 54 to UHF 35
GMAN moves from UHF 57 to UHF 27
SDN moves from UHF 58 to UHF 29
D3&4 moves from UHF 59 to UHF 34

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J

Jay
7:05 AM

js: I get all the at the moment, do you reckon we will lose any channels at any of our locations due to these retune events?

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J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

8:33 AM

Jay: It depends mostly on whether your is group C/D and if your present signals are high enough to overcome the losses incurred.

For me, given that I get a reasonable for com7 on UHF 31, I will likely manage, although GIM and L-MAN don't look likely prospects.

The DUK Coverage Checker shows mostly excellent for my postcode but doesn't even list G-MAN.

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J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

8:42 AM

The current Relocated list:

Relocated Services: North
Format:
service_name relocated from ONID.TSID.SID (OldMultiplexName) to ONID.TSID.SID (NewMultiplexName)

TJC relocated from 233A.3005.3824 (SDN) to 233A.5040.5A20 (Arqiva A)
TJC relocated from 233A.3006.3824 (SDN) to 233A.5040.5A20 (Arqiva A)
TJC relocated from 233A.3007.3824 (SDN) to 233A.5040.5A20 (Arqiva A)
TJC relocated from 233A.3008.3824 (SDN) to 233A.5040.5A20 (Arqiva A)
TalkingPictures TV relocated from 233A.A000.A120 (COM7) to 233A.6040.6E40 (Arqiva B)
TalkingPictures TV relocated from 233A.A001.A120 (COM7) to 233A.6040.6E40 (Arqiva B)
Quest Red+1 relocated from 233A.6040.6D80 (Arqiva B) to 233A.A000.A1D0 (COM7)
Quest Red+1 relocated from 233A.6041.6D80 (Arqiva B) to 233A.A000.A1D0 (COM7)

That's four SDNs, two COM7s and two ArqBs.

COM7 does have target regions but SDN and Arqiva B are just GBR, suggesting only one of each of those multiplexes exists.

These are the Transport Streams that belong to :

COM7, ONID.TSID = 233A.A000, Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West)U(GBR.Isle of Man)

Arqiva B, ONID.TSID = 233A.6040, Target Regions = (GBR)

SDN, ONID.TSID = 233A.3006, Target Regions = (GBR)

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S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:40 AM

js: SDN definitely has a separate for , where E4 is carried in place of True Entertainment.

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J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:28 PM

StevensOnln1: Thanks. Maybe the four SDNs are for the Nations, in which case they should have target regions of (GBR.England), (GBR.Scotland), (GBR.) and (GBR.Northern )

Incidentally, it's about time the entries for TJC were dropped. TJC relocated in September 2016!

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Page 147

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