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

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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 18/03/2024 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
Sunday, 20 September 2020
G
Graham
10:09 PM

I'm in Chester (CH3). Same problem lost all com 7 CH55 stations sometime Fri on all devices. Hard to believe in this day & age that atmospherics can cause such signal annihilation. As Dave says let's hope it clears up in few days.
Can't understand why no official comment from Freeview saying reason or have I missed it.......many people will be thinking it's their equipment, aerials etc & could go to unnecessary expense.

link to this comment
Graham's 2 posts GB flag
Monday, 21 September 2020
G
Graham
9:58 PM

Com7 CH55 has returned here in Chester!! Just done manual retune for CH55......hey presto 14 channels reappeared . Was still nothing there when tried at 6pm, so has atmospherics changed since then?
Hope this is the case for everyone else who's posted on this subject.

link to this comment
Graham's 2 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 22 September 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:18 AM

Graham:

As per previous posts here it's "Tropospheric Ducting" around causing interference, see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation. It can be quite variable, come and go within seconds, minutes or hours. It has been particularly strong recently which can as you've discovered wipe out your reception. Climate change is likely to mean these sort of events could be more common.
Currently it may continue on and off for a day or two more.

It's best not to retune if you have no signal or badly pixellated signals as this can just clear correct tuning and you have to repeat the retune when conditions stabilise.

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Chris.SE's 4,093 posts GB flag
K
Karl
7:36 AM

Can confirm CH55 back at normal levels here on the Fylde coast.

Was this posted here or elsewhere? Useful.

Tropospheric Ducting Forecast for VHF & UHF Radio & TV


link to this comment
Karl's 15 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:23 AM

Karl:

I have posted it in the past, but a lot of non-tech people just find it too confusing so I stick to just explaining the situation. There is another if you are interested Europe | Tropospheric Propagation Forecast

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Chris.SE's 4,093 posts GB flag
Saturday, 26 September 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:46 AM

All:

Just to repeat as it's now several pages back -
Winter Hill UHF channels after the recent 700 MHz clearance are -
The main multiplexes are C32, C34, C35, C29, C31, C37, C55 for PSBs1-3, COMs 4-7.
The Local ones are Local Manchester, Manchester GI on C24 & C27.
Liverpool Local mux on C21, Preston Local mux on C40.

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Chris.SE's 4,093 posts GB flag
Monday, 12 October 2020
A
Anthony
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:18 PM

I've had a brand new Labgear triple element wideband aerial installed and reception is excellent on all the channels. Channel 55 MUX is just slightly less at 50% signal strength and 100% signal quality but is adequate for the DVB-T2 tuner on my LG Freeview HD / Freesat HD tv and pick up without problems. Channel is always slightly trickier to get right due to the slightly lower signal level transmitted on this MUX but it is being received at the very least.

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Anthony's 52 posts GB flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:28 PM

WINTER HILL transmitter - DAB: Slightly reduced power due to a fault from 12 Oct 19:38 until 12 Oct 19:50. . [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,601 posts xx flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:18 PM

Anthony:

The COM7 mux (C55) is transmitted as an SFN (Single Frequency Network) so signals from other transmitters with COM7 can create locations which can have less signal than others. Having 100% quality is the most important thing and based on my own experience you should be fine with ~50% strength although depending on location you may find it varies with some weather conditions. If there's Tropospheric Ducting, that might cause larger variations and in worst case - loss of quality (and/or signal). Other multiplexes may/may not be affected at the same time.

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Chris.SE's 4,093 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 14 October 2020
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

10:27 PM

WINTER HILL transmitter - DAB: Slightly reduced power due to a fault from 14 Oct 21:35 until 14 Oct 21:37. Slightly reduced power due to a fault from 12 Oct 19:38 until 12 Oct 19:50. . [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,601 posts xx flag
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