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

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

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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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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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),
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 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, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 35 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C31 (554.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	Smithsonian Channel, 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 Christmas, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C37 (602.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! christmas mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 20 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, 76 That's Christmas MCR, 77 That's 60s MCR, 80 Best Xmas Music, 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?

J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

6:07 AM

There are a few puzzling items in the "North " aka "" service tables at present.

Sometime in the last two weeks, the Time Offset Table (TOT) has had an entry for added to it, as shown below.

Time Offset Table
UTC_time = 14/09/2012 03:16:16
country_code = GBR
country_region_id = 0
local_time_offset = 01:00
local_time_offset_polarity = 0
next_time_offset = 00:00
time_of_change = 28/10/2012 01:00:00

country_code = IRL
country_region_id = 0
local_time_offset = 01:00
local_time_offset_polarity = 0
next_time_offset = 00:00
time_of_change = 28/10/2012 01:00:00

For quite some time now, maybe a year, Welsh transport streams "BBC A" and "D3&4" have been listed in the SDT.
These transport stream are not listed in the NIT so no frequencies are given for them, nor are LCNs assigned to the on them.
They are, however, listed in the EIT, where full schedule data is present for the following services:

BBC ONE
BBC TWO Wales
ITV1 Wales
S4/C

Perhaps someone can shed some light.

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js's 826 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:31 AM

js: See:

Improvements to Freeview EPG data in reception overlap areas | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

12:49 AM

Thanks Dave, that accounts for the Welsh puzzle.

I've just checked the TOTs on . There are two networks at 28 degrees East, namely and , each with their own service tables. The ASTRA TOT has an entry for (to be expected since BSkyB officially broadcast to Ireland). The Freesat TOT does not.

So, why is there a TOT entry for Ireland from ? Is this another case of accommodating a regional overlap?

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js's 826 posts GB flag

C

cliff kenyon
11:36 AM
Macclesfield

bad yesterday and today.
, Cheshire, sk11 6px

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cliff kenyon's 1 post GB flag

cliff's: ...

Dom Robinson
8:55 PM

I have a TV in the kitchen which doesn't have a brilliant , so low-strength mux TV will suffer.

In the last few days, my 4Seven has almost died. Is that mux having problems, please?

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Dom Robinson's 13 posts GB flag

P

Peter Harrison
7:24 PM

I'm on the Wirral and pick up my from . Since the changes on 19/9/2012 I've lost the HD . There's not a strong enough signal on channels 50 etc, but no sign of them on channels 101+. Have retuned from scratch multiple times. Anyone know what's going on?

Cheers,

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Peter Harrison's 4 posts GB flag

P

Peter Harrison
7:54 PM
Wirral

I'm on the Wirral and pick up my from . Since the changes on 19/9/2012 I've lost the HD . There's not a strong enough signal on channels 50 etc, but no sign of them on channels 101+. Have retuned from scratch multiple times. Anyone know what's going on?

Should have mentioned postcode is CH49 2QT and the is a professionally fitted one on the .

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Peter Harrison's 4 posts GB flag

Peter's: P's Freeview map P's terrain plot P's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage

C

Charlie
5:46 PM
Wigan

My postcode is WN4 9LG and I have recently attempted to retune, as per broadcast instructions. Apart from losing channel 8 - which was planned to be "", and finding that the intention of channel 100 - planned to be a information page - still remains as the first in the adult lineup. I had also noticed that Yesterday and Dave did a number swap, but I recall seeing that changeover pre 19th Sept '12. I use two Philips digiboxes model DTR 220. Is the responsible for this non-event? Also the intention to show channels 101-120, reserved for HD didn't budge but I put that down to having a ordinary Freeview . Can you? Advanced thanks.

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Charlie's 12 posts GB flag

Charlie's: C's Freeview map C's terrain plot C's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:59 PM

Charlie: See Updated - changes to Freeview channel numbers this week on September 19th 2012 | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

The HD and news channels did not move. They may be the subject of another retune next month.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

E

Eric
1:52 PM

I have prog sent to numbers 800 and upwards that have proper channel numbers. The that this happens to depends on the make of box. Why are the program numbers made up from two different locations in the transmitted data?

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Eric's 1 post GB flag

Page 36

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