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 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

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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), 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?

S

Suzanne Brooks
4:20 PM
Bolton

Suzanne Brooks:

is a community aerial somewhere in on of 3 lofts.
However all was fine till this morning.
Two days after the work
I have just done another search and I am left with just 8 TV and no radio

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Suzanne Brooks's 2 posts GB flag

Suzanne's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

5:27 PM

Margaret: The of the mux which carries the BBC has been changed to , so try a manual tune on C50 and also, if Sky News is missing, .

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag

A

Alex Fisher
6:05 PM

Michael: I don't have any on 49 and 50, I have the but no actual signal. I have spoken to uk but got no; and why should I speak to someone re my when the only change has been to the ? My signal was fine one day and gone the next, the only change is at the transmitter.

The signal strength from on these frequencies is poor, hence the problems.

If someone on here can help I'd appreciate it

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Alex Fisher's 3 posts GB flag

D

Daniel Cornes
6:26 PM

Hi,

About Midnight on the 10th April I lost most of my PSB1 and COM 6 (the ones I watch the most!). I have done 10 TV retunes now and have had a local engineer check the cabling etc. any ideas what I can do now?

Best,

Dan

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Daniel Cornes's 1 post GB flag

G

geoff
6:38 PM

random breakup bbc1 bbc2 after retune anybody else

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geoff's 8 posts GB flag

P

Paul jefferies
6:40 PM

I have lost bbc1 bbc2 sky news pluss a few more when I re all they come back but then go off again

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Paul jefferies's 1 post GB flag

M

martin brown
6:51 PM

jb38: Many thanks for trying to me (your message at 1.07 pm today). You advised as follows:
"Make a note of the strength & (particularly the latter) on each of these five muxes, or six if you have an HD box, then give on results.

Ch50 (BBC) - Ch59 (ITV1) - Ch54 (HD) - Ch58 (ITV3 etc) - Ch49 (Pick TV etc) - Ch55 (Film 4 etc))"

Can I start by saying that I have two Humax machines: one is a HD machine model DTR-T1000; the other is a non-HD PVR 9300T. The HD machine does not have a facility for manual retunes or for setting the channel number for which a signal check is required. I must first select the channel and then go into settings to perform a signal check for that channel, then exit, reselect a channel and repeat the process. Only two of the TV you mention are available this way, but they differ from the descriptions you give. Channel 50 is the "Marketplace" channel, and its signal reads 42% strength and 100% quality; and channel 49 is the "Jewellery Channel" with identical signal strength 42% and quality 100%. The other four channels, when selected, show a message "No channel".

On the other machine, however, there is a facility in the installation settings for taking signal readings and selecting the channel for which a reading is required. The readings were as follows:
Ch 50: Strength 63%, Quality 0%
Ch 59: S 71%, Q 100%
Ch 54: S 64%, Q 0% (NB this Humax is not an HD one)
Ch 58: S 72%, Q 100%
Ch 49: S 65%, Q flips erratically and quickly between 0%, 10% and 50%
Ch 55: S 68%, Q flips erratically and quickly between 0%, 10% and 50%

NB on the non-HD machine giving these full readings, channels 49 and 50, when viewed as TV, are jewellery and Marketplace just like the HD model.

these results may give you a better idea of what might be wrong

Incidentally, I found this website through a search engine and it seemed to be the only place where problems with this 10 April retune are mentioned. I find it strange that so many people seem to have the same problem, and yet box manufacturers like Humax and the BBC's own website carry no information about the issue.

Thanks again for offering to help.

Martin

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martin brown's 5 posts GB flag

S

Steve B
7:39 PM

I've also lost PSB1 and COM5 .
After the channels were reassigned my tv retained the previous details but obviously they showed as "".
My first automatic removed them but did not add the new ones.
I've now tried retuning several times, both automatic and manual. Also tried disconnecting the and wiping the current channels but my tv retained them. Against my better judgement (as all my settings were lost) I did a factory reset and scanned again. All channels except PSB1 and COM5 were picked up.
I've given up at this stage.
For reference I've a Sony KDL-40CX523 and live in a apartment complex in M4

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Steve B's 2 posts GB flag

C

Charlie Maunsell
7:43 PM

Ch 50: Strength 0%, 0%

Liverpool city centre

no BBC 3 days later!!

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Charlie Maunsell's 1 post GB flag

M

Michael

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

7:46 PM

Steve B and Charlie Maunsell: Communal ? Checked with neighbours?

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Michael's 358 posts GB flag

Page 58

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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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