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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 11/11/2024 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

Sunday, 2 July 2023

Steve
12:12 PM

Karl:

Hi Karl,

It was the js post a few days ago that identified the I'd managed to miss when I'd achieved a successful retune were in UHF 24 and UHF 27 (15 TV channels in total)

The EPG gets through even if I avoid the daily Sony . However, the EPG does have the gaps you describe, particularly for the few days ahead. Probably best to summarise the learning curve I went down as it might differ slightly for others in different locations. Here's what I did:

1. I needed to find out when the Sony updates occur (I knew 10:00 and 14:00 because I'd seen it happen, but I knew something happened overnight as well. So I set up 2 min recordings at half past each hour during the night to trace when the fault arose, which is the last hour mark after the last recording success. That's how I found 03:00 and 05:00 (05:00 may not happen every night I think)

2. I set up daily recordings from 09:59 to 10:01, 13:59 to 14:01, 02:59 to 03:01 and 04:59 to 05:01. I set these up over a year ago and all 3 recordiers have been avoiding the Sony update ever since.

3. Obviously, I needed a successful re-tuning that missed the erroneous channels first which was hit & miss one year ago, but I now know that starting the "replace channels re-tune" sequence without the in and plugging it in after approx 10% done misses the erroneous channels and gets what I want. It is trial and error, but after a few attempts I get success. If the erroneous channels come later for your area then perhaps the manual aerial in/out process may need experimentation.

4. One interesting thing I can't explain is that of the 3 identical recorders I have, they have gradually become out of sync slightly with the clock such that one unit finishes its 2 min recording before another one starts. I thought that would upset the process, but no - they all still avoid updates reliably.

5. You must ensure there is enough HDD space left for these recordings, which is where I slipped up last week, which kicked off this whole fiasco again. But even 8 mins per day to cover say a max 3 weeks holiday is workable if you plan ahead

6. EPG usage - I find that series record has always been unreliable. Potentially perhaps due to occasional EPG update omissions. I always take series record off and set the time 3 mins early and run 10 mins over. The only time this doesn't work is if the broadcaster makes a last-minute change due to live sport overruns or a national crisis news bulletin.

7. Why do I do all this instead of catch up TV etc some may ask? Well primarily I hate watching Dramas interrupted by 4 mins of adverts every 15 mins. I edit out the adverts manually which is fairly easy with the Sony system. Also most catch-up systems don't keep everything available long enough for me, especially if I want to re-watch an old series. Blank DVD's aren't too expensive. I find the definition and a setting to give 3 hours/DVD is acceptable. I usually do films at a 2 hours per DVD quality.

I other Sony RDR HXD-870 owners find this layman's experience useful.

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Steve's 7 posts GB flag

Steve Donaldson

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

12:31 PM

Steve: For your recordings to prevent the , have you set Recording to SEP, which is the lowest , hence takes the least amount of space on the hard drive?

Perhaps the "Update" function at the times you identify synchronises the system clock to the time as broadcast by one of the multiplexes, and this explains why the clocks get out of sync. The Update function will run according to the system clock.

The other question is what does the "Update" do? Does it populate the EPG during this period, hence does preventing the Update also hinder series link because the recorder never gets to "see" the entire EPG, unless it is turned on manually?

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Steve Donaldson's 254 posts GB flag

Steve
1:00 PM

Steve Donaldson:

Hi Steve - Nice point re using SEP for these short update avoidance recordings. It seems that the EPG are not part of the Sony updates I'm avoiding because the EPG has always been populated OK during the last year when my system of avoiding Sony updates has worked successfully throughout. Albeit that some bits of the EPG guide don't go very far ahead ( 1 or 2 days only sometimes) but from Karl's comment, that seems normal.

Re clock timing - I agree. So this indicates that the Sony updates are triggered by the recorder unit and not some aspect of the broadcast, as I had assumed previously. Pity there's nothing in the Sony menu to facilitate stopping updates by user choice.

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Steve's 7 posts GB flag

Karl
4:59 PM

Steve: Thanks Steve, that's a really interesting read. Surprising (in a good way) the EPG still populates when you skip the .

1/ I'm not 100% sure on the night time one. I thought there was just one but not entirely sure tbh.

2/ I think that's a great idea tbh.

3/ I've played around doing that in the past, more for curiosity than anything else and see when it picked all the other up when the was reconnected permanently.

4/ That's weird. The clock is updated from... where ? From received data but from which channel... actually maybe not that weird because it will resync with the update I imagine. If it misses the update it will just free run like a quartz watch although perhaps not quite a accurate.

When we set the to 'France' to get around the broadcast issue the clock does not self set when doing a factory reset. It only seems to set when UK is set as a region.

5/ I think your using the longest record for these short recordings.

6/ I used to time shift thing like Coronation Street some years ago when it was on in two 30 minute episodes and occasionally it would miss the first one. Frustrating at the time. Also had occasional issues with things like Country File occasionally recording at the wrong time. Tracked that to and the recorder picking up the data for that and recording at the wrong time slot.

The move to Group A (for me) has been very welcome and I think played a massive part in the aerial being so successful, lower frequencies pass through tiles and so on much better.

7/ Same for me. I time shift most things and have experimented with all the recording modes, even the 'hidden' extra high one called HQ+ or something. I'm finding that SEP (from memory) visually looks really good on a 43" Sony TV.

If you use DVD's I'd recommend Verbatim. I rarely use them, usually to either move something from the upstairs recorder to the main one or to put something on a disc to show someone else. I've had TDK and Philips literally rot away visibly.

(you can fit up to a 1Tb HDD in these recorders. You need the service remote to do it (cheapies are available with the appropriate button) and ideally a drive suited to recording such as CCTV use etc. Speed is the about the least important factor, you need consistent and steady data flow)

Succesful Upgrade of HDD on RDR-HXD970 | AVForums

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Karl's 20 posts GB flag

Monday, 7 August 2023

C A Melling
8:44 PM

TV problems. Happened very abruptly. Fault unknown.

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C A Melling's 1 post GB flag

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:17 PM

C A :

Have your signals returned to normal?
If not, what sort of problems are they? Are you just missing some or is it on all, or badly pixellated pictures? Which channels are affected?

Have you checked that all the coax plugs behind the TV are plugged in correctly and there is no corrosion on the connectors?
Have you checked that your looks intact and is still pointing in the correct direction and that the downlead isn't flapping around in the wind?

I can't find any reported faults for the and it's no longer on the list for Planned but it's possible work last week hasn't been completed.
If you provide a full postcode, we can check your predicted .

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag

Friday, 25 August 2023

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

10:22 AM

The slashless CRIDs went national - maybe now they'll fix it!

Relocs_North 23-08-2023 12 55.txt:

Relocated : North West

Format:
service_name has moved from (Transport_Stream_ID) to Multiplex (Transport_Stream_ID)

GREAT! tv +1 has moved from GIM (7401) to Arqiva B (6040)

**************

North West duffers_pf 2023 07 24 004524.txt:

TOT.UTC_time = Mon 24 Jul 00:45

service_name = "GREAT! tv +1"
onid.tsid.sid = 233A.7401.7501
default_authority = sonycrimechannel.co.uk
{
programme = "Return Of The Saint"
{
crid = GTV1/S6037703, type = 32, series
date, duration, eventID, itemCRID, episode
Mon 24 Jul 04:00, 00:50, 6D4F, GTV1/E6017272, "S1 Ep19"

crid = GTV1/E6017272, type = 31, item
date, duration, eventID, itemCRID, episode
Mon 24 Jul 04:00, 00:50, 6D4F, GTV1/E6017272, "S1 Ep19"
}
}

**************

North West duffers_pf 2023 08 23 115824.txt:

TOT.UTC_time = Wed 23 Aug 11:58

service_name = "GREAT! tv +1"
onid.tsid.sid = 233A.6040.6EC0
default_authority = www.moviemix.co.uk
{
programme = "Castle"
{
crid = GTV1/S5804875, type = 32, series
date, duration, eventID, itemCRID, episode
Wed 23 Aug 12:00, 01:00, 7728, GTV1/E5593983, "S6 Ep16"
Wed 23 Aug 13:00, 01:00, 7729, GTV1/E5593992, "S6 Ep17"

crid = GTV1/E5593983, type = 31, item
date, duration, eventID, itemCRID, episode
Wed 23 Aug 12:00, 01:00, 7728, GTV1/E5593983, "S6 Ep16"

crid = GTV1/E5593992, type = 31, item
date, duration, eventID, itemCRID, episode
Wed 23 Aug 13:00, 01:00, 7729, GTV1/E5593992, "S6 Ep17"
}
}

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js's 841 posts BG flag

Saturday, 26 August 2023

Robert Lee

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

12:16 PM

When convenient, can the UHF be updated as several are out of date.

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Robert Lee's 87 posts GB flag

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:06 PM

Robert :

As per one of my previous posts a few pages back -
All:

As this hasn't been posted for a while, there were many changes to UHF frequencies across the country during the Clearance program. The site owner here struggled to keep up with all the changes - there are over 1100 transmitters in the UK. Whilst a number didn't change, most changes were notified in PDF documents most of which had to be read manually.
Here on the page, two of the Local details haven't been updated.

For the sake of clarity, here is the current data -
In the multiplex order BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6
Winter Hill UHF are -
The main multiplexes are , , , , ,
The Local ones are Local Manchester, Manchester GI on & .
Liverpool Local mux on , Local mux on .
If you hover over the C channel numbers, it should give you the .

What you can receive and how well will depend on location, a full postcode is needed to look at predictions.

Hopefully the site owner will be able to update the listings at the top of this page as well as the change over time section.

Brian Butterworth:: Please see above.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

2:05 PM

Chris.SE: Quite right, I forgot about the locals in my last comment, of which I can receive none!

All three used to be on the same - - as "petals" in the polar diagram.

Why was that arrangement not maintained?

What is doing at ? It makes no sense to me.

This is the current bun according to the SI:

GIM
ONID.TSID = 233A.7401
522 MHz, uhf 27, 8 MHz, 16-QAM, 8k, 3/4, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North )U(GBR.Isle of Man)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
076 76C1 01 That's 60s MCR
077 7641 01 That's 70s MCR
080 7681 01 That's 80s MCR
086 7781 01 That's 90s
087 7601 01 TV Warehouse
088 7701 01 TV Warehouse+1
)

Local
ONID.TSID = 233A.8008
474 MHz, uhf 21, 8 MHz, QPSK, 8k, 3/4, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West.Liverpool)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
007 8048 01 Liverpool TV
068 8540 01 RealityXtra
206 8200 01 POP
207 82C0 01 Tiny Pop
208 8240 01 POP MAX
792 84C0 01 GREAT! tv
793 8500 01 GREAT! romance
)

Local Multiplex
ONID.TSID = 233A.800B
498 MHz, uhf 24, 8 MHz, QPSK, 8k, 3/4, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West.Manchester)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
007 804B 01 That's TV
068 8540 01 RealityXtra
206 8200 01 POP
207 82C0 01 Tiny Pop
208 8240 01 POP MAX
792 84C0 01 GREAT! tv
793 8500 01 GREAT! romance
)

Local Multiplex
ONID.TSID = 233A.800D
626 MHz, uhf 40, 8 MHz, QPSK, 8k, 3/4, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West.Preston)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
007 804D 01 That's TV
068 8540 01 RealityXtra
206 8200 01 POP
207 82C0 01 Tiny Pop
208 8240 01 POP MAX
792 84C0 01 GREAT! tv
793 8500 01 GREAT! romance
)

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js's 841 posts DE flag

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