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

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35- (585.8MHz)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C31 (554.0MHz)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C37 (602.0MHz)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LM
 H -20dB
C40 (626.0MHz)572mDTG-121,000W
Channel icons
from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester,

LL
 H -17dB
C24 (498.0MHz)572mDTG-122,000W
Channel icons
from 30th June 2014: 7 Bay TV Liverpool,

LPR
 H -20dB
C56 (754.0MHz)572mDTG-121,000W
Channel icons
from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire,

GIM
 H -20dB
C57 (762.0MHz)572mDTG-21,000W
Channel icons
 Now 90s,  Spotlight TV,  Clubland TV,  Country Music Entertainment ,  Classic Hits MCR, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 77 That's 60s MCR, 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?

regional news image
BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 22km southeast (140°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
regional news image
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?

1956-80s1984-971997-981998-20092009-132013-182013-1720 Feb 2020
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C9ITVwaves
C12BBCtvwaves
C24_local
C29SDN
C31com7com7
C32BBCA
C34D3+4
C35BBCB
C37com8com8
C40LOCAL2
C48C5wavesC5waves
C49tv_off ArqAArqA
C50tv_off BBCABBCA
C54tv_off-BBCB-BBCB-BBCB
C55tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesArqBArqBArqBcom7tv_off
C56tv_off_local_local_localLPR
C57tv_offGIMGIMGIMGIM
C58tv_offSDNSDNSDN
C59tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C61ArqA
C62BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCA
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area

May 1956-Jul 1968Granada Television†
May 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Granada Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:23 PM

MikeP: All these posts are probably being made by automated spam bots, so there really isn't any point replying to them as whoever is responsible for the spam is unlikely to read or take any notice.

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StevensOnln1's 3,607 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:30 PM

MikeP: & StevensOnln1: I did suggest on the Feedback page where MikeP originally posted about this problem that it was likely to be spam generated by a virus that someone who has posted here in the past, has picked up.

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Chris.SE's 4,103 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:52 PM

MikeP: Ah just missed your last post, before posting my comment above. There are so many things on this site that need "resolving" at present which do not appear to be happening. I would have thought that Briantist: would have been looking at the Feedback board above most others and attempt to resolve some of the "easier" problems, but that doesn't appear to be happening. I thought I read somewhere a while back that he'd been unwell, so whether that's the reason for things not happening, I don't know. It's a shame.
I think we can probably cope with some of the out-of-date technical info (current mux channel allocation etc), but having to wade through tons of these spam posts to find any genuine posts is very time consuming and we mkight possibly miss something - I'm finding myself fast scanning through and it's easy to miss something like that.

Briantist: If you possibly can, please fix some of the problems. Thanks.

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Chris.SE's 4,103 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:29 PM

js:
1) I was unable to check the events you've listed because I did not see your post(s) in time.
2) Despite what it say near the top of this page "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." (which I thought was an automated update), Digital UK | Planned engineering works say that there is engineering work sometime this week. Now whether that's anything to do with any faults (eg. your issue) or for future at700 clearance etc. is not known here.

Are you still seeing issues? As I'm not receiving my signals from Winter Hill, I get mine from Mendip, I can't confirm what you see. I did check this afternoon using an 18month old LG TV and also the Smart NowTV box and did not see any errors whatsoever in any Freeview EPG data that I can get on these.

Whilst you are obviously correct in the fact that Digital UK has responsibility for the Freeview EPG, this doesn't appear to be a generic problem with the Freeview EPG data - an assumption, as I've not been able to find any other reports of problems, but I've not done a really exhaustive search. I therefore suspect that this is a localised problem, which may of course be at the transmitter. (Also I believe the format of the data for FreeSat and Sky may be different because of the way it's transmitted on those platforms - I don't really know anything about the detail).

You could try contacting Digital UK about this and if they are not aware of the issue ask them to contact Arqiva to see if they can help, but as this is a complex technical issue I wouldn't hold out too much hope that Digital UK wouldn't just give you the run-around because they don't have sufficient technical understanding (that's based on my previous experience at trying to get them to fix some relatively minor issues in the Coverage Checker Database - one of which has been outstanding for 4 years!!).
That is why I suggested you might try contacting Arqiva directly.


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Chris.SE's 4,103 posts GB flag
Thursday, 17 May 2018
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:40 AM

Chris.SE: All it takes to prove it is one example:

YourTV, Thu 24 May 20:00 - 21:00: Castle
Wrapped Up in Death: The death of a museum curator takes a bizarre turn when Castle and Beckett learn that he isn{'}t the first member of a recent archaeological expedition to die. (S2 Ep19)

Here, the apostrophe in -isn't- will be missing because, in the Freeview data, it is represented by invalid code 0x19.


Who knows how many Freeview devices are being crippled by this faulty data?

My attempt to inform duk was met with total ignorance.

All the Freeview EPG data is passed to a "central collator" so will not vary across the network.


Here is the same event, this time from DVBGuide's output file rather than my own:

DVBGuide - A DVB EPG capture utility:

DVBGuide - A DVB EPG capture utility

<programme channel="233a.5040.5ab0" start="20180524190000 +0000" stop="20180524200000 +0000">
<!--locator uri="dvb://233a.5040.5ab0;789b@2018-05-24T19:00:00Z/PT01H00M" -->
<!--crid type="0x32" uri="crid://www.YourTV.com/S4797936" -->
<!--crid type="0x31" uri="crid://www.YourTV.com/E3946096" -->
<title lang="en">Castle</title>
<desc lang="en">Wrapped Up in Death: The death of a museum curator takes a bizarre turn when Castle and Beckett learn that he isn&#x19;t the first member of a recent archaeological expedition to die. (S2 Ep19)</desc>
<!--content id="0x30" user="0x00" -->
<category lang="en">Entertainment</category>
<language>en</language>
<!--component content="0x01" type="0x03" language="und" -->
<video>
<present>yes</present>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
</video>
<!--component content="0x02" type="0x03" language="eng" -->
<audio>
<present>yes</present>
<stereo>stereo</stereo>
</audio>
</programme>

The author of DVBGuide probably thought he was covering all eventualities by wrapping the duff codes like this: &#x19;.

If so, he was wrong, as the xmltv app refuses to open the file.



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js's 823 posts NL flag
Friday, 18 May 2018
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:34 AM

Chris.SE: Here is the same event, this time from DVBGuide's Freesat output file rather than Freeview:

<programme channel="2.840.d7e6" start="20180524190000 +0000" stop="20180524200000 +0000">
<!--locator uri="dvb://2.840.d7e6;789b@2018-05-24T19:00:00Z/PT01H00M" -->
<!--crid type="0x32" uri="crid://www.yourtv-uk.com/S4797936" -->
<!--crid type="0x31" uri="crid://www.yourtv-uk.com/E3946096" -->
<title lang="en">Castle</title>
<desc lang="en">Wrapped Up in Death: The death of a museum curator takes a bizarre turn when Castle and Beckett learn that he isn&apos;t the first member of a recent archaeological expedition to die. (S2 Ep19)</desc>
<!--content id="0x30" user="0x00" -->
<category lang="en">Entertainment</category>
<language>en</language>
<!--component content="0x01" type="0x03" language="und" -->
<video>
<present>yes</present>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
</video>
<!--component content="0x02" type="0x03" language="eng" -->
<audio>
<present>yes</present>
<stereo>stereo</stereo>
</audio>
</programme>

The xmltv app loads DVBGuide's Freesat output file without complaint.

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js's 823 posts GB flag
Monday, 11 June 2018
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:10 AM

js:

The only time I ever see any "corruption" to the Freeview EPG data is when the relevant information doesn't appear to completely load for whatever reason.
I don't think it's worth me commenting further on this issue as I can't add anything constructive further to what I've already said in previous posts. Sorry.


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Chris.SE's 4,103 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 12 June 2018
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:14 PM

Now 80s has moved from GIM to COM8

GIM
ONID.TSID = 233A.7401
762 MHz, uhf 57, 8 MHz, 16-QAM, 8k, 3/4, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West)U(GBR.Isle of Man)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
075 77C1 01 The Vault
089 7701 01 Now 90s
090 7601 01 TV Warehouse
091 7641 01 Clubland TV
209 7681 01 POP+1
210 7741 01 Tiny Pop+1
)

COM8
ONID.TSID = 233A.B000
plp_id = 00
T2_system_id = B02A
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
040 B100 22 Rocks & Co 1
055 B090 22 5STAR+1
086 B0E0 22 More4+1
088 B150 22 Now 80s
093 B140 22 Together
094 B130 22 PBS America
095 B110 22 FreeSports
096 B120 22 Forces TV
106 B040 25 BBC FOUR HD
111 B000 25 QVC HD
112 B010 25 QVC Beauty HD
115 B050 25 BT Showcase HD
205 B030 25 CBeebies HD
)

The static Tiny Pop+1 placard is back on GIM - together with the same old problems - continuity errors in its audio and video streams and a continually changing PAT.

Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 30 <= dPCR <= 69 ms intervals over 15 seconds for LocalMux1 North West (12/06/2018 20:44:43)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
01.193 | 00.214 | 01.012 | Tiny Pop+1
03.478 | 01.376 | 02.101 | The Vault
02.555 | 00.993 | 01.319 | Now 90s
03.038 | 01.173 | 01.756 | POP+1
02.124 | 00.922 | 01.299 | Clubland TV
01.552 | 00.623 | 00.980 | TV Warehouse
08.158 | 04.609 | 06.391 | Null Packets
03.719 | 02.193 | 03.239 | All Other Streams
18.096 | 18.096 | 18.096 | TS Bitrate

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js's 823 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:59 AM

truTV+1 was added to GIM:

GIM
ONID.TSID = 233A.7401
762 MHz, uhf 57, 8 MHz, 16-QAM, 8k, 3/4, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West)U(GBR.Isle of Man)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
075 77C1 01 The Vault
089 7701 01 Now 90s
090 7601 01 TV Warehouse
091 7641 01 Clubland TV
092 8440 01 truTV+1
209 7681 01 POP+1
210 7741 01 Tiny Pop+1
)

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js's 823 posts GB flag
A
Andy
7:44 PM
Manchester

I have not been able to watch any channel 58 or 59 programmes for the last 2 weeks; all show very low signal strength all other channels indicate max (Winter Hill. Manchester M20 2QA) There are no indications of reduced power ?

I have a rooftop aerial. 4G filter fitted.

Any suggestions

Thanks

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Andy's 6 posts US flag
Andy's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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