Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
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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 18/11/2024 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, 5 April 2020
P
Peter Whitehead11:14 AM
Last week BBC4HD and QuestHD disappeared from my TV. A retune did not help. I use Winter Hill with excellent reception otherwise.
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C
Chris.SE2:26 PM
Peter Whitehead:
Winter Hill has had Planned Engineering of late with "Possible weak signal" which in some locations might appear as No signal or loss of channels. Others have reported a similar loss.
A retune under such conditions generally just clears the correct channels as nothing (decodable) is received.
You'll need to do a further retune if/when the signals are back to normal.
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Wednesday, 8 April 2020
B
Bob McCulloch7:38 AM
Lymm
Since Friday 3rd April 2020 our picture quality has deteriorated with freezing images of varying degrees and/or no signal on some channels that normally have perfect reception. Our post code is WA13 9JF and we have double checked ariel connections. Looking forward to hearing from you please.
Bob mcCulloch
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Bob's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE12:42 PM
Bob McCulloch:
As per the post immediately before yours, the Planned Engineering may have been the cause. Some sets/devices will do automatic searches/retunes if they lose signals, or if you did one, it may well have picked up another weaker transmitter whilst some Winter Hill multiplexes were on reduced power or briefly off-air. There is no Planned Engineering listed this week (doesn't mean they aren't doing any!!) so one might expect things to be back to normal. The BBC aren't reporting any faults affecting their channels and Freeview aren't indicating any issues affecting reception.
Exactly which channels have you been having a problem with?
If you look at your set's tuning section and the signals on the main multiplexes look normal, you could try a retune to see if it restores the ones that you are having problems with, but try it this way - Unplug the aerial and do a full automatic retune which should clear all previous tuning as no channels will be found, then plug the aerial back in and repeat the same and hopefully all the correct channels will be restored.
A reminder when looking at you tuning section you should see specific UHF channels for Winter Hill for each of the multiplexes in the order listed as follows -
PSB1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD, COMs 4-6, COMs 7&8, Local G-MAN, Local L-MAN, Local L-LIV
UHF channels C32, C59, C54, C58, C49, C37, C55, C56, C57, C24, C21
You will also undoubtedly have PSB1/BBCA simulcasting on UHF C50 with the programmes at LCN751 et seq. in your EPG, this is so that those with older Group C/D aerials that can't get the BBC SD channels in their normal LCNs from UHF C32 have time to get free In Home support for a new aerial from Freeview - but that has been suspended at present because of the Covid-19 situation as has the the remaining 700MHZ clearance retune events.
For anyone in that situation, I don't know if they are putting affected people on a waiting list, you can try ringing them on 0808-100-0288
Just a further note for those within the reception area of the Preston Local mux L-PRN, it's on UHF C40.
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Friday, 24 April 2020
P
Pete G, Altrincham3:42 PM
Hi There,
Very confusing mux list at the moment (Winter Hill, April 24th 2020).
The list by TV channels shows shows COM5/ArqA & COM8 on C31, whereas the list of "How will Winter Hill frequencies change over Time" shows COM7 on C31. Likewise TV channels has COM6/ArqB on C37 but the frequencies over time has COM8 on C37.
I know we're in the middle of an interrupted change to free up 700Mhz but I'm trying to find some free channels for 3 DVB-T modulators and I I can't make out what is still due to change.
Also, will you be able to update the frequencies over time. Theres been a lot of changes in the past few months, but that table only shows up to 23 Oct 2019. This site has always been my goto site for this info, as nobody else is ever up to date.
Keep up the good work.
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C
Chris.SE10:54 PM
Pete G, Altrincham:
As per several posts on this transmitter page and elsewhere on the site, the site owner has not had the time to keep up with all the changes due to the 700MHz clearance.
The current channel usage is in the post before yours.
The final channels after the final retune date tba, are -
For PSBs1-3 & COMs 4-8, UHF Channels 32, 34, 35, 29, 31, 37, 55, 56
& for Local muxes G-MAN, L-LIV, L-MAN, L-PTN, UHF Channels 27, 21, 24, 40.
Personally I'd use channels above 59 for the modulators.
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Saturday, 25 April 2020
M
Mr K7:31 PM
I've lost COM7 today (never had issues before) on both a Sony Android TV and a Panasonic HDD recorder.
Fylde coast Cleveleys using large Antiference RX20 Yagi rooftop aerial.
It was fine at 12 noon today (25th April) as I recorded News24 in HD for 35 minutes. When watched live at 1:30pm all HD channels on this MUX had gone. The Sony has auto deleted them from the YouView lineup and the Panasonic just reports 'No Signal'. A signal check on the Panasonic show 0% for all these channels, all other MUXES and channels are good.
No hint of reception issues before this.
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Sunday, 26 April 2020
M
Mr K7:06 AM
Just to update and say that these missing channels returned around 9pm shortly after I posted the above.
A BBC engineering page actually says that "COM7 CH55 reception variable you may not receive all these service..." when I put my address into it. Very odd. I'll see what happens today.
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Monday, 27 April 2020
C
Chris.SE1:32 AM
Mr K:
There had been a little bit of Tropospheric ducting around in previous days, didn't check the last couple of days. It may have been that causing a touch of disruption. One other thing to check, make sure you don't have any HDMI leads close to the Aerial downlead or any flyleads.
COMs 7&8 operate as SFNs so reception can be "variable" - not so good, in some locations.
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C
Chris.SE1:32 PM
Mr K:
Winter Hill is now listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible weak signal".
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