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 19/05/2025 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 TV 3,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35- (585.8MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	46 5SELECT, 57 U&Eden, 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, 203 CBBC HD, 204 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, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 61 GREAT! mystery, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 74 U&DaveJaVu, 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, plus 21 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, 76 That's Dance, 233 Sky News, plus 11 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! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! player, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's Melody, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 207 POP UP, plus 10 others
LM	H -20dB	C56 (754.0MHz)	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	C40 (626.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	1,000W
	from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire,
GIM	H -20dB	C57 (762.0MHz)	572m	DTG-2	1,000W
	77 That's Melody MCR, 78 That's Oldies, 79 That's Dance MCR, 80 That's TV (UK) MCR, 86 That's TV 2 MCR, 88 TV Warehouse,

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

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:26 PM

: Purely with reference to your question regarding the TX , the PSB transmission aerials (panels) are always located at the top of the mast and as such can sometimes be received in a not too distant location at a "slightly" lower strength than that of the other transmitters radiating from lower down the mast, the "over the head" effect being totally dependant on the terrain, and of course with the reverse situation sometimes being the case if the receiving aerial is located on high ground.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:40 PM

: Different frequencies travel differently which explains why all signals broadcast from the same place and at the same can be received at different levels.

As jb38 says, you could potentially be affected by the "umbrella effect". This is where the high power focuses the beam further away - which is towards its horizon. This is opposed to focusing on the ground closer to it.

If you can then use the . This may provide more stable anyway.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:57 PM

Most main sites use 'trapezoid slot' aerials which are positioned around the cylindrical sleeve (weather protection) so radiate equally in all directions. A typical array has a number of such slots around the circumference and stacked in a slightly staggered pattern to ensure equal radiation in all directions. Each slot aerial radiates *all* the signals for *all* the multiplexes so there is not significant difference in radiate pattern or density.
It does differ on the smaller 'repeater' or ' light' transmitters as they are required to me more directional.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:19 PM

MikeP: That's interesting because the heights given for PSB and COM channels of some of the high- transmitters are different where they are all at the same power, e.g. . The latter is usually slightly lower down.

I'd read into this that there are two different arrays, perhaps with the latter having the beam tilted lower than the latter. (I note that all six of 's are 726m. 's are all the same.)

The main transmitters where the COMs run at half power to the PSBs generally have all six muxes at the same height which would suggest that they all use the same array, presumably because the additional cost of a second array isn't seen as worthwhile and that reducing the power is a more economical way of reducing the coverage footprint (so as to reuse the channels).

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

S

Ste
1:35 PM
Prescot

L35 8PT.

Hello.

I'm experiencing an odd problem on only.

On HD, there's an occasional black flash on the , almost as if someone walked in front of the camera. Sound is uninterrupted.

There can be no problem for a while, then these flashes will occur several times a minute.

Any clues as to where to look?

Thanks.

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Ste's 5 posts GB flag

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

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

3:31 PM

Ste: I would have a look at the Freeview intermittent interference | Freeview Interference | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice page first.

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Briantist's 38,929 posts GB flag

R

Robert Lee

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

9:54 AM

Great to see COM7 on the air. But what about COM8? Is it really due this month as shown above? What programming will it carry?

Also, why don't the BBC HD carry a text service?

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Robert Lee's 87 posts GB flag

K

Kamlesh
3:24 PM

Hello,

I like to know about Indian Sab TV, I use to receive this channel free but for some reason my can't it and find, but instead I have LAMHE channel.

Please can you me ?

Many thanks.

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Kamlesh's 1 post GB flag

M

mazbar

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:15 PM

Can someone give me a little twice at two separate locations with very good for I am getting psb3 on 31 not com7 what am I receiving ?

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mazbar's 384 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:30 PM