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.

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 02/10/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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! Movies Action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 CBS Reality, 68 RealityXtra, 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 Arts, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 pick, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's 60s, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 80s, 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! Movies Christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies +1, 63 Great! Movies Christmas 1, 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 60s MCR, 77 That's 70s MCR, 80 That's 80s MCR, 86 That's 90s, 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?

G

g allonby
11:34 AM
Accrington

is not available here and is not equiped with all chanels.i know p forest is an laternative but why should i pay contracters coming today.

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g allonby's 8 posts GB flag

g's: G's Freeview map G's terrain plot G's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage

G

g allonby
7:20 PM
Accrington

contracter been today at 18.30 now on a ok hdmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ok wow

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g allonby's 8 posts GB flag

g's: G's Freeview map G's terrain plot G's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Stuart Owens

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

7:43 PM

I was going to ask my twice previously asked question you will see further above, but maybe there's no-one in Manchester who uses UK Free TV who was able to tell me but my query has now been resolved as I see Brian must have updated the information I was asking for in the last couple of days on this page under the "Mux Effective level, position Rating Watts" table. Although I think the name MEN appears to now be named as MTN - Manchester TV (Entertainment TV Ltd) as shown in: Freeview HD regionalised channel list | British Isles: England: Granada: Winter Hill TX (LL115FQ)

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Stuart Owens's 156 posts GB flag

A

Anthony

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

5:07 PM

MTN are on air but the outside of the main beam (basically Manchester as opposed to Greater Manchester) is very weak. is similar to VHS, very poor. In Altrincham I get a stable service but the c/n ratio is only 17db as opposed to 35db on the main , Fortunately there is nothing of interest on it, mainly Z list films. I have never met a viewer to either this or the previous M service which does not bode well for the future of .

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Anthony's 58 posts GB flag

N

Nedbod

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

11:12 PM

RE your timeline table above : ITV was broadcasting on Ch 59 on UHF long before 1984 ? It went colour in Autumn 1969, I think, but was on UHF in B&W before that.

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag

N

Nedbod

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

11:15 PM

Also I don't think BBC1 started from Manchester on VHF in 1956 either as it was initially only available from on 2. BBC 1 from wasn't available until the 60s, I think 1963 or 64 from memory.

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag

N

Nedbod

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

11:25 PM

BBC Transmissions started from in 1962 and ITV/BBC1 & 2 in 1966

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag

N

Nedbod

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

11:27 PM

on UHF 625 lines !!

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:20 PM

Nedbod: "1956~85 VHF" denotes the allocation for some point during 1956-1985.

There are more specific details on the page under "History of ITV1 in the area".

The UHF dates start in 1984, as this is when was added to the line-up. It would have taken up too much space to add in the one by one.

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Briantist's 38,899 posts GB flag

A

Anthony

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

4:46 PM

The 2013 BBC A and ARQ A seem to be missing on the above list. As the Manchester has 6 channels on it, I doubt that it is QPSK.

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Anthony's 58 posts GB flag

Page 42

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