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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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

_______

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?

Comments

Saturday, 1 July 2023

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:42 PM

Steve Donaldson: I agree with all you have said and yes, I think it does apply.

From the specification:

ETSI TS 102 323 V1.5.1 (2012-01)
Technical Specification
Broadcasting (DVB);
Carriage and signalling of TV-Anytime information in DVB transport streams

From Page 28:

6.3 Default authority and abbreviated CRIDs
6.3.1 Abbreviated CRID rules
In certain situations described in the present document a CRID string may use the following abbreviated forms. These reduce the overhead of a CRID string by leaving out information that can be inferred from the location of the CRID entry.
Firstly, the characters "crid://" may be omitted from the start of the string so that the string starts with the first character of the CRID authority. So the example CRID:
crid://company.com/foobar
may be encoded as:
company.com/foobar
Additionally, within the scope of the definition of a default authority (see clause 6.3.2), the CRID authority part of the string may also be omitted if the CRID's authority matches the current value of default authority. In this case the string starts with the delimiter between CRID authority and data parts of the CRID (i.e. "/"). Therefore, the example CRID:
crid://company.com/foobar
may be encoded as:
/foobar

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js's 841 posts NL flag

Steve
5:07 PM

js & Steve Donaldson. Hi both. I'll leave the technical stuff to your good selves. But just to add that in my case, as a result of having 3 identical recorders, I was able to know instantly that it was not the devices at fault. So I was able to choose to experiment to resolve the problem. Had I had only one (as will be the case for many owners) then I would probably have assumed it had broken and scrapped it, given the age. It makes me wonder how many owners have scrapped theirs unnecessarily! Whoever caused this problem ought to be informed if at all possible, so they can at least learn from it. Thanks for your interest.

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Steve's 7 posts GB flag

Karl
5:32 PM

Steve: That's a great tip to avoid the background scans.

Do you find the EPG still populates and is usable when you do that, for example for setting timer recordings?

If CH24 is proving an issue in your case I wonder if a 'Stub' and possibly attenuation as well might. Get it right and it can provide a high degree of attenuation.

Quarter-wave stub

I have a (Group A from Blake) feeding a 4db two way amp in the loft. The feed to the lounge is passively split 3 ways (so about the equivalent of 6db attenuation on each feed) with each feed going to the TV, the Sony recorder and a Panasonic recorder. The Sony will still operate essentially normally on all main with a further 15 to 18db attenuation on its already split feed.

I'm 44km from but have on CH24. Just looking and I have channels 29, 31, 32, 34, 37 and 40. Channel 37 is at a lower level (about 70% on the Sony) while all others are around 95%. As I say, stick a 15 or 18db attenuator in the feed and its all still OK.

Have you seen the mammoth thread on AV forums on these Sony's and the update issues?

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Karl's 20 posts GB flag

Steve Donaldson

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

5:47 PM

Is this duff data carried on the main multiplexes, as in PSB1 to 3 and COM4 to 6? I thought that the EPG data for one was carried on all others so as to facilitate the building up of the programme guide and for programme delivery control with respect to recording devices.

But if Steve has managed to workaround the issue by preventing the Sony PVR from tuning in and then this implies that the data is not carried on the other, main multiplexes.

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Steve Donaldson's 259 posts GB flag

Karl
6:39 PM

Steve Donaldson: Which carry the EPG data has always been something I have wondered. One minor annoyance on the Sony (that I find anyway) is that the guide often has blanks or whole blocks of data missing once you get to a day or two ahead. Sometimes if you sit and watch and wait you can occasionally see missing blocks fill in but mostly not.

The Panasonic is always 100% correctly populated.

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Karl's 20 posts GB flag

Steve Donaldson

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

6:54 PM

I am not sure whether this has already been picked up, but the Sony Pictures Television were sold to Narrative Capital in 2021:

Narrative Capital buys Sony UK channels

Narrative

The company on the Great website is said to be Narrative Entertainment UK Limited:

Contact Us - Great! Network | Great! Movies

The Head of Operations at Narrative Entertainment is Kelly Beavan:

Narrative Entertainment Launches Recently Acquired Channels - UK Broadcast News | 09/02/2022

Email addresses at Narrative Entertainment are firstinitiallastname {at} narrative.com, this according to the licensing information for Sony Movies Action on the website:

Ofcom | TV Cable and Satellite

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Steve Donaldson's 259 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

7:04 PM

Steve Donaldson: Yes, the same EPG data is carried on all multiplexes but devices ignore the data for that are not present.

The data for BBC B is Huffman Coded on all multiplexes and the users of generic DVB-T2 capable boxes see it as gibberish, typically calling it Chinese.

In fact, all EPG data off BBC B is Huffman Coded.

Devices only capable of receiving DVB-T are never exposed to this data as the services on DVB-T2 multiplexes cannot be scanned in.

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js's 841 posts US flag

Steve Donaldson

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

9:02 PM

Thanks for the reply js.

On the AVForums thread, one of the complainants says he is on the transmitter in which only broadcasts the PSBs. I don't believe there are any local multiplexes around that area, so this rather rules out anything other than something carried on the PSBs at least. The posting is here:

Sony 870 (and all Sony HXD and some Pioneers) DVD Recorders - No Freeview | Page 33 | AVForums

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Steve Donaldson's 259 posts GB flag

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:42 PM

Steve Donaldson:

Hmm, interesting! But the transmitter is in Devon, it is indeed a Light transmitter with only the PSBs. But that chap doesn't know his geography and unless he's very close to (Devon), he won't be getting that transmitter as it is very low with very limited coverage.

That said, if what caused his disruption (which sounds slightly different) is carried by the PSBs I'm not sure if it's an identical problem.

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

Sunday, 2 July 2023

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

12:28 AM

Steve Donaldson: Wildearth launched on on Wed Jun 21 in the SDN .

I scanned the EPG at time Fri 23 Jun 06:04 and found that the CRIDs under the default_authority "wildearth.tv" did not begin with "/"

Instead, they all began with wildearth.tv/

I scanned again later that day at 15:28 and found that the string "wildearth.tv/" had been changed to "/" and thus the fault had been fixed.

The series of posts on this issue, in the thread you linked to, started Jun 22.

The first recent post from that user, dated Jun 23 2023, starts:

"I have been struggling with this exact same problem for the past few days"

Whatever the claimed might be, it is almost certain that user's boxes had scanned in the SDN multiplex.

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js's 841 posts US flag

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Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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