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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 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, 5 February 2020
D
David Roberts
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:01 PM

In the absence of any official info,could someone please give me the final and 100% correct details for the up and coming Winter Hill Freeview changes? How I originally understood the situation,was that PSB1/BBC A MUX,would be powered up on 19th Feb 2020,on UHF CH32 and the CH50 version would be simulcast for 24 Hours until the early Hours of 20th,when it would be discontinued. However i'm now hearing from some,that both CH50 and CH32 will be simulcast until April 22nd 2020? The Date of the remaining channels to be moved to Aerial Group T or W. I've emailed Freeview.co.uk again for clarification on this and also the situation regarding North Wales Winter Hill viewers and their Help scheme for the elderly,etc?

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David Roberts's 23 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:32 PM

David Robert:

I posted very clearly on the 31st Jan. on p189 in response to Chris Gunn that the Simulcast continues until 22nd April. That post was immediately before your previous post. Perhaps you missed it.

As regards Help schemes, there is no help scheme for the Elderly per se. The Free Help that is available is organised by Freeview if someone contacts them and is not able to receive the 3 PSB multiplexes in particular on the new frequencies, but I believe it also includes the COMs4-6.
It is provided Free provided the person does not have Satellite or Cable. Age is irrelevant.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:35 PM

David Roberts:

Oh, in addition to my previous a few minutes ago, Where did you hear that the Simulcast was supposedly stopping on the 20th Feb.? because it is wrong.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Friday, 7 February 2020
D
David Roberts
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:52 AM

Chris. I took the information from the Digital UK/Ofcom Data for the Winter Hill Transmitter. Sadly I can't post you a screenshot of it here. The info in that clearly states that viewers will need to retune on 20th February,2020 and the New CH32 PSB1 MUX,will be powered up on 19th February,2020. I posted a screenshot of this on UK Free's Twitter Feed,relating to your posts and the Winter Hill Transmitter. I'm not doubting your info but somewhere along the lines,errors have been made in the info released? I note that there still is no response from Freeview.co.uk,to my request to clarify this? What a mess!

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David Roberts's 23 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:51 PM

David Roberts:

Yes, but it does NOT say on that page that the simulcast ceases on the 20th. You have read too much into that. If you search for the more detailed information about the retunes in the various other pages & documents available, it's all quite clear. Clearly you are doubting me because you haven't researched enough!

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 12 February 2020
D
David Roberts
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:03 PM

Reply from Freeview regarding the Winter Hill Retune(s)

Dear Mr. Roberts,

Thank you for your email dated 5 February regarding technical changes at Winter Hill.

The BBC A Mux will run in parallel (simulcast) until 22 April to help support viewers who may need a new aerial to receive BBC A on CH 32.

CH 50 will be listed from 751 in the TV guide temporarily. CH 32 will technically launch on 19 February but will not be configured to replace CH 50 'in the guide' until 20 February.

The retune should work from 10AM on 20 February.

Viewers who receive their channels from the Winter Hill transmitter (regardless of their location) may see pop up messages on screen advising the need to retune on 20 February.

In most cases a simple retune will restore any missing channels. If anyone is still having trouble getting certain channels back (following the event) then please encourage them to call us on freephone 0808 1000 288 for further support.

They can find out more information on these changes (nearer the time) and how it may affect them by visiting: Important changes to Freeview | Freeview before they call us, as they might be entitled to free home support.

Please note: Home support is only available for 3 months from the date of the retune event at each transmitter. Home support ends for the 20 February changes at Winter Hill on: 20 May 2020

Our usual opening hours are: Mon-Fri 9am-6pm, Saturday 9am-5pm.

Home Support:

If retuning does not restore the affected services, we may be able to send a qualified installer to the viewers home. This service is available when:
The viewers house has its own aerial and they don't have access to satellite or cable TV
The problems can be attributed to the frequency changes, and;
TV services cannot be restored by following our advice over the phone.
Our installers will investigate the cause of any reception problems and undertake necessary work, including installing a replacement rooftop aerial where required (includes loft and external wall-mounted aerials).

We do not provide in-home support to properties with shared aerial systems, businesses or
households that use a portable set-top aerial to receive TV services.

There is no charge for this service. Should any viewer arrange independently for an aerial installer to carry out work, we are not obliged to refund any costs they incur.

Thankfully at last some clear and concise info from Freeview.co.uk.


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David Roberts's 23 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:56 PM

David Roberts:

If you don't want clear and precise information from independent experts, why come here asking questions in the first place? The information you have got from Freeview is exactly what I've posted here in several recent posts!

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 19 February 2020
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

3:39 PM

Bad Characters Update:

I had thought, maybe, the BBC had finally eliminated the root cause of these errors in their EPG data, but no, they haven't.

The latest short-form error-dump follows:


Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North West multiplex BBC A. Date: 2020/02/19 10:12:56

It has become apparent through observation that invalid bytes in the Freeview EIT text strings are the low-order bytes of the Unicode General Punctuation Block:

Of course only bytes less than 0x20 qualify as invalid codes in the context of EIT text strings.

Since about April 2018, the following invalid codes have been found in the Freeview EIT text items:

0x01, substitute: {0x01} -> Unicode Character: "EM QUAD" (U + 2001)
0x08, substitute: { } -> Unicode Character: "PUNCTUATION SPACE" (U + 2008)
0x0B, substitute: {} -> Unicode Character: "ZERO WIDTH SPACE" (U + 200B)
0x10, substitute: {-} -> Unicode Character: "HYPHEN" (U + 2010)
0x13, substitute: {--} -> Unicode Character: "EN DASH" (U + 2013)
0x14, substitute: {---} -> Unicode Character: "EM DASH" (U + 2014)
0x18, substitute: {L'} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2018)
0x19, substitute: {R'} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2019)
0x1C, substitute: {L''} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201C)
0x1D, substitute: {R''} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201D)

There are 1098 invalid codes in the current EIT:
invalid code, count, percentage
0x18, 15, 1.37%
0x19, 1025, 93.35%
0x1C, 29, 2.64%
0x1D, 29, 2.64%

There are 877 events with invalid codes in the current EIT.

The Culprits:
Format:
service_name, number of events containing errors

BBC Radio 4, 1
BBC Radio 4, 1
Yaaas!, 15
Blaze, 2
Blaze+1, 1
TCC, 1
ADULT Studio 66, 32
Planet Knowledge, 32
Sports Channel Network, 32
Sony Movies Action, 2
Ketchup TV, 9
RNIB Connect, 3
Sony Movies, 22
POP, 76
PBS America, 15
Sony Channel +1, 19
POP Max, 128
Sony Movies Classic +1, 2
Tiny Pop, 82
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 20
Sony Movies Classic, 8
That's TV, 48
Tiny Pop, 82
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 20
Sony Movies Classic, 8
That's TV, 48
Tiny Pop, 82
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 20
Sony Movies Classic, 8
PBS America +1, 28


Events with invalid codes in the eight-day EIT off multiplex BBC A at 2020/02/19 10:12:56:


#1: BBC Radio 4, Wed 26 Feb 09:45 - 10:00: title = "The Crying Book", description = "3/5. A young Black man is shot by the police in Walmart, prompting poet Heather Christle to consider the power and meaning of {L''}white lady tears{R''}.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D

#2: BBC Radio 4, Wed 26 Feb 09:45 - 10:00: title = "The Crying Book", description = "3/5. A young Black man is shot by the police in Walmart, prompting poet Heather Christle to consider the power and meaning of {L''}white lady tears{R''}.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D

#3: Yaaas!, Wed 19 Feb 05:30 - 06:00: title = "Wallace and Gromit's Cracking...", description = "... Contraptions: From the Soccamatic to the 535 Crackervac, Cracking Contraptionsis a showcase of 10 short films about Wallace{R'}s wonderfully eccentric ideas.", description error byte: 0x19

...

#877: PBS America +1, Tue 25 Feb 15:50 - 17:00: title = "The Greatest Knight", description = "In a career that spanned half a century, English soldier and statesman William Marshal served some of Christendom{R'}s greatest leaders.", Huffman coded, description error byte: 0x19


Note: EPG for three local and both BBC A multiplexes (C50 and C32) is sent, accounting for the apparent dupli/triplication.


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js's 822 posts NL flag
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

6:08 PM

The Code Rate for com8 was reduced to 1/2 a while ago.

Here are the current Bitrates for com7 and com8:

PCRs in each transport stream were used to calculate the bitrate.

Median values tend to eliminate rogue PCR results.

The values can be used to deduce the transmission parameters using a calculator such as:

DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator: DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator - Tools for Digital TV and Mobile DTV

com7:

Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 34 <= dPCR <= 37 ms intervals over 11 seconds for Arqiva C Com78 National (19/02/2020 15:47:35)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
05.985 | 01.852 | 03.471 | BBC NEWS HD
06.237 | 02.318 | 03.592 | Channel 4+1 HD
10.648 | 02.747 | 04.934 | 4seven HD
08.426 | 03.609 | 05.472 | TJC HD
03.727 | 00.644 | 01.238 | Smithsonian Channel
03.841 | 00.553 | 01.334 | Quest Red+1
02.585 | 00.559 | 01.321 | More4+1
02.490 | 00.654 | 01.334 | CBS Reality +1
01.227 | 00.775 | 00.985 | 5USA+1
04.778 | 02.151 | 03.187 | RT HD
05.163 | 01.271 | 02.609 | Pick+1
02.323 | 01.019 | 01.722 | Jewellery Maker
03.471 | 00.569 | 02.362 | Null Packets
04.999 | 02.080 | 03.264 | All Other Streams
36.825 | 36.825 | 36.825 | TS Bitrate

PCR PID, Calculated Bitrate (bps)
0301, 36824872
0401, 36824873
2211, 36824874
2331, 36824874
1101, 36824876
0101, 36824877
0511, 36824878
0731, 36824878
0841, 36824880
2121, 36824880
2401, 36824895
2021, 36824901
0631, 36825177

maximum bitrate = 36825177
minimum bitrate = 36824872
average bitrate = 36824903
median bitrate = 36824878

A match of 36824882 Bits/s is found with the decontis DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator with these parameters:

Bandwidth: 8MHz with ext. ticked
Modulation: 256 QAM
Code Rate: 2/3
Pilot Pattern: PP4
Data Symbols: 59
FEC Blocks: 195

com8:

Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 34 <= dPCR <= 35 ms intervals over 11 seconds for Arqiva D Com78 National (19/02/2020 15:47:04)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
06.551 | 04.038 | 05.174 | QVC HD
06.018 | 02.753 | 05.054 | CBeebies HD
06.090 | 02.810 | 04.718 | QUEST HD
02.667 | 00.554 | 01.435 | 5STAR+1
02.374 | 00.556 | 01.415 | CBS Justice +1
01.463 | 00.687 | 00.949 | Forces TV
01.872 | 00.515 | 00.845 | PBS America +1
03.522 | 01.070 | 01.849 | FreeSports
01.411 | 00.682 | 01.096 | Together TV+1
02.835 | 00.768 | 01.320 | NOW 80s
01.630 | 00.000 | 00.237 | Null Packets
03.249 | 01.501 | 02.884 | All Other Streams
26.975 | 26.975 | 26.975 | TS Bitrate

PCR PID, Calculated Bitrate (bps)
2611, 26974875
0311, 26974877
2111, 26974877
0101, 26974879
0211, 26974880
2221, 26974880
2511, 26974889
2311, 26975003
2801, 26975116
2421, 26975229

maximum bitrate = 26975229
minimum bitrate = 26974875
average bitrate = 26974951
median bitrate = 26974880

A match of 26974881 Bits/s is found with the decontis DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator with these parameters:

Bandwidth: 8MHz with ext. unticked
Modulation: 256 QAM
Code Rate: 1/2
Pilot Pattern: PP4
Data Symbols: 59
FEC Blocks: 191


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js's 822 posts US flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:56 PM

js:

Hi js, > The Code Rate for com8 was reduced to 1/2 a while ago.

It's believed this happened on the 12th Feb. when Sandy Heath and a few other transmitters had a retune, it was spotted on the Freeveiw Detailed Coverage checker for Sandy Heath reception and supposedly upcoming changes on WH on the 20th, and later dates for other TXs, but it seems they all must have changed on the 12th as one might expect because it's an SFN. Checking here on off-air it hadn't changed on the Monday (10th) but had later in the week!

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
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