To join, leave or change ukfree.tv updates by email, enter your email address here:
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 |
map is loading, please wait...
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.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.
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
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 22km southeast
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.
How will the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| years | 1956~85 | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 10/4/13- | 2013-17 | 31st Mar 2018- | |
| aerial group | VHF | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | W | A K | |
| C9 | ITV | ||||||||
| C12 | BBCtv | ||||||||
| C29 | BBCA | ||||||||
| 600 | C31 | com7 | D3+4 | ||||||
| C32 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C34 | SDN | ||||||||
| C35 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C37 | com8 | ArqB | |||||||
| C48 | C5 | C5 | |||||||
| 700 | C49 | ArqA | ArqA | ||||||
| C50 | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54 | -BBCB | -BBCB | -BBCB | ||||||
| C55 | BBC1 | BBC1 | BBC1 | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | |||
| C56 | +1 | _local | _local | _local | |||||
| C57 | GIM | GIM | GIM | ||||||
| C58 | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C59 | ITV | ITV | ITV | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C60 | +C | ||||||||
| 800 | C61 | ArqA | |||||||
| C62 | BBC2 | BBC2 | BBC2 | BBCA | |||||
| C63 | +D | ||||||||
| C65 | C4 | C4 | C4 | ||||||
| C66 | +2 | ||||||||
| C67 | +B | ||||||||
| C68 | +A |
orange background for multiplexes names more
green background for transmission frequencies
lilac background for power levels in watts
800MHz band: 4G mobile started in 2013
700MHz band: 4G from 30 June 2020more
600MHz band: new or moved digital TV services more
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W
Italics for analogue, digital switchover was Wednesdays 4th November and 2nd December 2009.
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
|
|
Tuesday, 8 May 2018
J
js5:12 AM
The bad characters in the Freeview EIT are spreading.
The latest offender is BBC Manchester:
BBC Manchester, Thu 10 May 12:00 - 15:00: Becky Want
Becky chats to George Costigan about Long Day{'}s Journey Into Night which is on at Home.
Here we see {'}, which I have inserted in place of byte 0x19 to indicate an apostrophe was intended.
As it happens, 0x2019 is the Unicode for 'RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK'
And guess what?:
Sony Crime Channel, Sat 12 May 20:00 - 21:00: Person of Interest
No Good Deed: Reese and Finch{'}s lives are put in danger when their next person of interest stumbles upon the existence of {L'}The Machine{R'}. (S1 Ep22)
Where I have inserted {L'} in place of byte 0x18 and {R'} in place of byte 0x19.
As it happens, 0x2018 is the Unicode for 'LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK'
And hows about this then:
Al Jazeera Eng HD, Thu 10 May 21:00 - 22:00: Al-Nakba
Four-part series on the history of Palestine and the events of 1948 {-} a year which the Palestinians refer to as the {L'}nakba', or catastrophe.
Where I have inserted {L'} in place of byte 0x18 and {-} in place of byte 0x13 to represent a dash or minus sign.
As it happens, 0x2013 is the Unicode for 'EN DASH'
None of these bytes are valid according to the DVB spec:
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Specification for Service Information (SI) in DVB systems:
http://www.etsi.org/deliv….pdf
See Annex A: Coding of text characters.
The current culprits:
There are 388 bad characters over the next 8 days; this list is just an example from each of the services involved:
Food Network, Mon 14 May 07:45 - 08:15: Bake with Anna Olson
Morning Treats: Pastry Chef Anna Olson demonstrates how to make three classic breakfast treats. These recipes are so delicious, they{'}ll make you want to jump out of bed. (S3 Ep20)
Travel Channel, Tue 15 May 06:25 - 06:45: Garage Gold
The Garage Brothers don{'}t charge for clearing clutter, but they get to keep any valuables they unearth - and maybe even turn a profit from selling them on. (S6 Ep12)
movies4men, Mon 14 May 07:00 - 08:10: The de Havilland Comet
A documentary which charts the history and development of the world{'}s first commercial jet airliner - the British-built de Havilland Comet.
Sony Crime Channel, Mon 14 May 17:00 - 18:00: Person of Interest
No Good Deed: Reese and Finch{'}s lives are put in danger when their next person of interest stumbles upon the existence of {L'}The Machine{R'}. (S1 Ep22)
True Entertainment, Wed 16 May 00:30 - 01:30: Tenko
Disease sweeps through the camp, prompting some prisoners to contemplate a daring plan. Meanwhile, Sally and Nellie{'}s blossoming friendship becomes a source of gossip. (S1 Ep7)
TBN UK, Tue 15 May 22:30 - 23:00: The Potter's Touch
Featuring the ministry of Bishop T.D. Jakes as he tackles today{'}s topics and issues by offering practical and spiritual solutions to life{'}s toughest questions.
truTV, Tue 15 May 12:00 - 13:00: The Devil You Know
The Family Man: As women are attacked on the streets of Florida, a young mother begins to have suspicions about her husband. Melissa{'}s life is turned upside down when she learns his secret. (S4 Ep7)
Sony Crime Channel +1, Sun 13 May 03:00 - 03:55: Manson's Missing Victims
Charles Manson and his followers committed nine murders, but was that all? Those involved and those who have studied Manson don{'}t think so. This documentary investigates the alleged missing victims.
YourTV, Tue 15 May 20:00 - 21:00: Castle
When the Bough Breaks: Castle{'}s agent approaches him with a career changing opportunity, but it would mean the end of his relationship with Beckett. (S2 Ep5)
TCC, Sat 12 May 03:30 - 04:00: Cajun Pawn Stars
Buy George!: A 1790's pocket watch from Founding Father George Washington is brought into the shop. And later, will one of Louisiana{'}s first swamp boats prove to be a good buy?
FreeSports, Tue 15 May 17:15 - 19:15: World Rallycross
Belgium: Coverage of the FIA World RX season held on tracks made of asphalt and gravel. Some of the world{'}s best drivers race in cars capable of 0-60mph in 1.9 seconds.
Al Jazeera Eng HD, Tue 15 May 13:00 - 14:00: Al-Nakba
Four-part series on the history of Palestine and the events of 1948 {-} a year which the Palestinians refer to as the {L'}nakba', or catastrophe.
POP, Tue 15 May 23:00 - 23:15: Talking Tom and Friends
The Famous Monster: Talking Tom faces some serious drama after acing Talking Angela{'}s commercial audition. (S1 Ep38)
Tiny Pop, Tue 15 May 17:15 - 17:30: Ranger Rob
Ranger Ready: A test run of a new ride at Big Sky Park puts Rob{'}s ranger rescue skills to the test. (S1 Ep8)
POP Max, Sun 13 May 17:02 - 17:33: Poke?mon: Black & White - Rival Destinies
Clash of the Connoisseurs!: While pursuing Ash{'}s eighth Unova Gym badge, our heroes are summoned to a place where Cilan{'}s Connoisseur skills are in high demand! (S15 Ep32)
POP+1, Wed 16 May 00:00 - 00:15: Talking Tom and Friends
The Famous Monster: Talking Tom faces some serious drama after acing Talking Angela{'}s commercial audition. (S1 Ep38)
Sports Channel Network, Wed 09 May 00:00 - 06:00: Extreme Sailing Series
Extreme Sailing Series attracts some of the world{'}s top sailors, racing the hydro-foiling GC32 catamarans on short courses around the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
ADULT Studio 66, Wed 16 May 00:00 - 03:00: Studio 66 Nights
Watch, Listen and Interact with the UK{'}s hottest models daily. (all 18+)
BBC Manchester, Thu 10 May 12:00 - 15:00: Becky Want
Becky chats to George Costigan about Long Day{'}s Journey Into Night which is on at Home.
RNIB Connect, Sat 12 May 12:00 - 13:00: TED Radio Hour
Showcasing important ideas and inspiring stories from some of the world{'}s most remarkable minds
| link to this |
C
Chris.SE7:48 PM
js: Whilst I'm unable to explain the reason for what you are seeing, I note that most of those channels are on Multiplexes operated by Arqiva with the exception of 4 that I spotted which were on COM4.
Maybe you could try contacting Arqiva to see if they could shed any light on the issue, they may be able to point you towards a contact for those that aren't operated by them.
Just another thought, are you able to reproduce those errors on another device so that you can eliminate the possibility of some bug that's cropped up on your receiver.
| link to this |
J
js10:52 PM
Chris.SE: Thanks for taking the trouble to reply.
I would be grateful if you could check the events I listed to confirm the errors are present on your Freeview device.
I did check on an LG TV and the code that corresponds to an apostrophe was ignored, so that what should be "can't" became "cant".
| link to this |
Wednesday, 9 May 2018
J
js1:29 AM
Chris.SE: The responsibility lies with Digital UK.
"Digital UK provides day-to-day technical management of the Freeview Electronic Programme Guide (EPG)"
http://www.digitaluk.co.u….pdf
Freesat and BSkyB evidently know how to manage the EPG data they receive from service providers:
Freesat:
Sony Crime, Mon 14 May 17:00 - 18:00: Person of Interest
No Good Deed: Reese and Finch's lives are put in danger when their next person of interest stumbles upon the existence of 'The Machine'. (S1 Ep22)
BSkyB:
Sony Crime, Mon 14 May 17:00 - 18:00: Person of Interest
No Good Deed: Reese and Finch's lives are put in danger when their next person of interest stumbles upon the existence of 'The Machine'. (S1 Ep22)
Freeview:
Sony Crime Channel, Mon 14 May 17:00 - 18:00: Person of Interest
No Good Deed: Reese and Finch{'}s lives are put in danger when their next person of interest stumbles upon the existence of {L'}The Machine{R'}. (S1 Ep22)
I would expect Freeview devices to ignore the incorrect codes, rendering what should be "Finch's" as "Finchs" and "'The Machine''" as "The Machine".
| link to this |
Monday, 14 May 2018
MikeP
12:44 PM
12:44 PM
Tnlywlnlayy:
This website is NOT about football so please stop wasting our time, and yours, with irrelevant junk. It is ONLY about TV reception problems.
| link to this |
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
S
StevensOnln15:23 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.
| link to this |
C
Chris.SE5:30 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.
| link to this |
C
Chris.SE5:52 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.
| link to this |
C
Chris.SE6:29 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.
| link to this |
Thursday, 17 May 2018
J
js7:40 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 isnt 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: .
If so, he was wrong, as the xmltv app refuses to open the file.
| link to this |
Select more comments
Your comment please