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

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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

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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
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, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C31 (554.0MHz)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
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 TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C37 (602.0MHz)726mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LM
 H -20dB
C40 (626.0MHz)572mDTG-121,000W
Channel icons
from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester,

LL
 H -17dB
C24 (498.0MHz)572mDTG-122,000W
Channel icons
from 30th June 2014: 7 Bay TV Liverpool,

LPR
 H -20dB
C56 (754.0MHz)572mDTG-121,000W
Channel icons
from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire,

GIM
 H -20dB
C57 (762.0MHz)572mDTG-21,000W
Channel icons
 Now 90s,  Spotlight TV,  Clubland TV,  Country Music Entertainment ,  Classic Hits MCR, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 77 That's 60s MCR, 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?

regional news image
BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 22km southeast (140°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
regional news image
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?

1956-80s1984-971997-981998-20092009-132013-182013-1720 Feb 2020
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C9ITVwaves
C12BBCtvwaves
C24_local
C29SDN
C31com7com7
C32BBCA
C34D3+4
C35BBCB
C37com8com8
C40LOCAL2
C48C5wavesC5waves
C49tv_off ArqAArqA
C50tv_off BBCABBCA
C54tv_off-BBCB-BBCB-BBCB
C55tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesArqBArqBArqBcom7tv_off
C56tv_off_local_local_localLPR
C57tv_offGIMGIMGIMGIM
C58tv_offSDNSDNSDN
C59tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C61ArqA
C62BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCA
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area

May 1956-Jul 1968Granada Television†
May 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Granada Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Friday, 20 December 2013
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:47 PM

FREDERICK : Sudbury carries BBC East and ITV Anglia (East).

If you are receiving BBC South East then it is likely to be coming from a transmitter in Kent, probably Bluebell Hill. Crystal Palace carries BBC London.

At switchover, the coverage of Sudbury was complemented by a new transmitter at Rouncefall which provides better coverage in the south of the region. Thus, you may be able to receive Anglia programming with a suitable aerial. Knowledge of your location in the form of postcode, or that of a nearby property such as a shop, will allow some idea of success to be gauged.

Have you confirmed that the problem TV is tuned to the correct transmitter, that be the same as the other?

Check services 1 - BBC One, 3 - ITV, 101 - BBC One HD (if applicable), 10 - ITV3, 11 - Pick, 18 - 4Music.

For each of these read off the UHF channel number it is tuned to (between 21 and 60) or frequency in MHz.

Post the values here and we can tell you which transmitter is being received for each.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:54 PM

FREDERICK : When I say "check", I'm talking about looking on the signal strength screen for each of these services.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
A
anthony
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:34 PM

Just checked, no problems with com7 winter hill. All additional HD channels, BBC News HD Aljazeera HD etc , operating normally.

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anthony's 58 posts GB flag
Sunday, 22 December 2013
A
Adrian
7:55 PM

Hi. Postcode wa159qw with a clear view to the mast and just tried a power off retune for both main tv and humax box and all the new HD are there apart from Bbc4 hd
Any ideas gents, the aerial is only two years old and all the others are very good strength
Many thanks

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Adrian's 3 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:21 PM

Adrian: BBC4 HD (106) along with BBC News HD (107) transmit on COM7 Mux C31 which is out of band grouping to all the other channels broadcast by Winter Hill, therefore if 2 years ago a group C/D aerial was installed on your property then its efficiency starts to taper off from C48 downwards, and this coupled to the COM7 transmitter only radiating on 14Kw could result in the level of signal received being too low for the box, as the aerial should really be wideband to cover the channel spread used by the Winter Hill transmitter.

If though you already have a wideband aerial fitted then its possibly just the case that the signal received is simply under the level required to resolve a picture and requires boosting, you can test this by carrying out a manual tune on C31 but NOT pressing search or scan after having entered C31 into the box, as the strength the signal is being received at should be displayed on the strength / quality bar.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:28 PM

Adrian : If you can see the end of the horizontal crossbeam that holds the elements check what colour of plastic blanking plug is fitted on the end of the support arm, if its green then you have a group C/D aerial whereas if black its wideband.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 23 December 2013
A
anthony
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:35 PM
Altrincham

Adrian. I live not far from you in Timperley and can confirm that the signal in our area is very strong. No one so far as I know has fitted group C/D aerials in this area for years so you must have some kind of a fault. As the aerial is only 2 years old get the installer back as they have not done the job correctly, mention Trafford trading standards if they object. Perhaps the aerial has blown around in the recent gales due to poor installation. Some of my TVs are fed from an old yaggi style indoor aerial, bought from an Asian corner shop years ago, screwed to a beam in the loft . The signal is via an old fashioned lossy splitter but they still get get all the new HD channels with a strong signal and 100% quality. That's how strong the signal is here.

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anthony's 58 posts GB flag
anthony's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 30 December 2013
C
Christopher Moore
4:55 PM
Manchester

On my new TV I get low signal levels (~20%) only on BBC News HD and Al Jazeera HD. This corresponds to mux COM7 and channel C31 of my preferred transmitter at Winter Hill.

Everything is good on HD channels from mux PSB3 BBCB, channel C54. All SD channels are very good. They are almost 100% signal quality & strength.

My post code is M22 5GQ, house number 31, which the freeview checker says should receive a strong signal on all HD channels.

What is wrong with my reception for those few HD channels on COM7 C31?



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Christopher Moore's 1 post EU flag
Christopher's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:08 PM

Christopher Moore: The power of C31 is lower than the rest, but it is in no way "low" and is likely to be more than adequate in view of the fact that you are only 20 miles from the transmitter and have clear, or near clear, line-of-sight.

However, it is outside Group C/D, so if your aerial is a C/D one it won't be as sensitive.

See here for a reply I made to someone else who may be in a similar situation:

Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice

What I would add is that signal quality is what matters. If you have good quality at any particular moment then the picture is as good as it ever will be, irrespective of strength. You may be able to live with it. Some TVs/boxes have boosters in-built and if this is the case it might be found to be useful to have that set to on for C31.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 1 January 2014
A
Adrian Rowley
3:52 PM

Thanks guys for all the replies
My tele and human t2 box found the signal today but it's intermittent so when wind calms down ill be up to look at the connections. Think the aerial type is fine
Hopefully sorted for the bridge season 2!

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Adrian Rowley's 3 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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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