Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 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 18/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 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 | |||||
| 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-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 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C12 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C24 | _local | ||||||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C40 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C48 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C49tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C50tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | -BBCB | -BBCB | -BBCB | ||||||
| C55tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | com7tv_off | ||
| C56tv_off | _local | _local | _local | LPR | |||||
| C57tv_off | GIM | GIM | GIM | GIM | |||||
| C58tv_off | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C59tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C61 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C62 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | |||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
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 GranadaWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area
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Sunday, 14 April 2013
C
Carl12:12 AM
Just to add to everyone's issues about the sudden loss of BBC, Dave and Pick TV. This has only happened to me tonight. I did a retune on 10th April as prompted by an on screen message. Everything was fine until today. I ave five TV s in different rooms in a single boosted arial system. Two of them lost BBC so I did a retune and got them back on one but not on the other. O the one where it doesn't work it only doesn't work through the PVR, on that TV in the same room on the same arial wire the channels are all there when viewed directly through the TV. I also noted that the signal strength on the missing channels is a lot stronger than on the channels ha are there. Very very odd....
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T
Tony Jaques7:31 AM
Hi there,
During the shuffle to satisfy the G4 'phone fiasco on the
10th something was changed in Winter Hill's Multiplex PSB2,
and that something upsets my Technosonic PVR101 recorder.
After a rescan (and any number of further rescans) the
channels all appear as expected in the Channel list and EPG,
and can be viewed. But the PVR will NOT record any of the
channels in the PSB2 multiplex - either by direct command or
as timer events. There is no problem recording any other
channels.
If the machine is switched off (not standby - proper off)
for a while all (and only) the PSB2 channels have
disappeared at switch on! A new channel scan results in the
situation as described above.
The only channel I watch in PSB2 is channel 4 (because I
won't watch a channel with a burnt in logo), so it is not a
huge loss, but what bothers me is that there may be a plan
to modify the other multiplexes in the same way, and I then
lose the lot.
I only know two other people with the Technosonic PVR and
their's are affected in the same way - so something has
changed in Multiplex PSB2!
Someone please fix it.
Tony (G3PTD)
By the way, I did work as an engineer for GTV for 30 years, so I am not totally clueless!
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D
David Rogers8:54 AM
KMJ: All those selections say "channel unavailable" on the tv screen, and when the "Signal condition" option on the PVR is selected, each shows a strong signal but an empty channel, so the BBC stations are not, for some reason, being stored in memory. Neither is it possible to find them by changing channels when in the "Signal condition" sub-menu.
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J
jb381:55 PM
Tony Jaques: The fact of you having a Technosonic PVR101 (also known as Tevion 801 / or 1620) that was still operational is a bit of a record, as these boxes have a chequered history by being notorious for suffering from a large range of problems (including that of your present one) and basically caused by software bugs, manufacturers fixes in most cases having made the situation worse.
About the only thing you can do that "might" help the situation is to carry out a "first time installation" but NOT followed by an auto scan, but manually tune in each of the stations muxes one at a time storing results, then once completed go into the edit programmes list and delete all unwanted programmes including radio channels, this hopefully being a way to get over the problem.
If you wish you could try bypassing the manual tune after having carried out the "first time installation" and just use auto tune, but if this fails you will have to carry out the procedure mentioned.
Mux channel numbers used by Winter Hill. (excl HD)
50 - 59 - 58 - 49 - 55
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R
Roland Debenham6:27 PM
Since the retune on 10/4, I have experienced pixelating and some dropout on my tv and pvr (Humax). My TV is very new (just over a week)so I carried out an initial automatic tune, and when I lost those channels on the 10 April, I simply followed the onscreen guide for the retune. It is this retune that has now started to ocassionally pixelate and drop out. I live in Cleveleys, Lancashire, and wonder if there is a better transmitter than the one selected by the autotune that I can MANUALLY tune to that would eliminate this problem. Unless the problem is being dealt with by engineers and will improve without any input from me.
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J
jb388:26 PM
Roland Debenham: It would be somewhat easier to give advice on this if you had provided a post code, or at least one from somewhere nearby within 1/2 a mile (at the most) so that the reception predictor can be accessed.
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G
gerald tait8:42 PM
II have no signal on my HD. Recorder. I had one before Wednesday
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A
andrew turner9:14 PM
When I arrived home last night my tv said no signal. same again today. I have now set up the TV from scratch with the first time install and channel scan menu. I now find that I cant get bbc1 or bbc2 and 70% of the channes break up like there is either a poor signal or interference. There was nothing wrong with my TV before. What has gone on, is it going to be sorted, what can I do.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
If I cant get bbc 1 and 2 do I need a tv license ?
Regards
Andy
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G
Ged Hughes10:14 PM
Liverpool
I have had a number of reception issues notably with my LG 'Smart' TV, but not so much with the Samsung HD Freeview box nor BT Vision box. I assume this is because of differences in the sensitivity of the equipment. This has been an issue for a few weeks and I am more than a little miffed about losing reception and having to retune in every way possible way, with factory resets, manual tuning, auto tuning using every permutation of cabling to get my TV to show anything that isn't at best pixelated or usually 'No Signal'. It is no coincidence that all these issues coincided with the Winter Hill 'engineering'. All that has been engineered is a loss of reception to facilitate a few phone users. The management of this has been appalling and the clowns responsible should be made accountable for this farce, hopefully by Ofcom! The signal strength and quality is insufficient where it was fine in the past. Although in Liverpool I can see the Winter Hill transmitter from my house and am in direct line of sight so I should be getting a clear signal and should not be an issue. Who is responsible for all this mess? As a licence payer I am not getting what I am paying for and the only reason more people are not complaining is because they are on cable or Sky and not terrestrial.
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Ged's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
D
Debbie Jones10:43 PM
I have a Topfield PVR 5800. On 10/4/13 I lost all BBC channels ; I can view them on the tv, but not on the pvr. I can't record them on the pvr either, of course. Please help! A search doesn't detect them.
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