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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
Monday, 1 December 2014
A
anthony
10:55 AM

Thank you very much for that information as I have been using the SD service again recently ( my wife was grumbling about the drop outs even though they were few and far between).

link to this comment
anthony's 18 posts GB flag
H
H J Hill
10:47 PM

Monday 1 December 2014:

Sorry to have to contradict my earlier message. The Arqiva COM7, UHF-31, drop outs have not been fixed.

Today, two hit "15-to-1" on CH4+1HD (16:18 and 16:25); and one hit "Dancing Cheek to Cheek" on BBC FOUR HD (21:23).

I'm not watching the damned multiplex all the time (I'm not paid to; nor is anyone, it seems). These are the first ones I have observed since 20:54 on Thursday 27 November 2014.

It's an utter disgrace; and on a transmitter serving 7 million.

Anyone else affected, complain to DigitalUK and report day/time of incidents. Arqiva is like dear old British Leyland: they leave it to the customer to check the quality standard of the product.

link to this comment
H J Hill's 17 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 2 December 2014
M
mazbar
sentiment_satisfiedGold

6:05 AM

H J Hill: When you had your aerial checked to see if there was a problem what did the aerial man say could be the problem

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mazbar's 384 posts GB flag
H
H J Hill
11:47 AM

Tuesday 2 December: 11:30

Every HD-carrying multiplex on Winter Hill is off-air (so some SD channels are therefore missing too).

The OFF multiplexes are: COM7; BBC-B; and Arq-B. These are on UHF-channels (not Freeview numbers) 31; 54; and 55 respectively.

Presumably this means they are fixing the COM7 fault on UHF-31. I certainly hope so.

If the fault had been on Crystal Palace, serving London, one suspects it would have been fixed PDQ.

link to this comment
H J Hill's 17 posts GB flag
M
mazbar
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:53 AM

H J Hill: There is no fault on winter hill I am sitting here watching Bbc news hd with no problems. Have your system checked by a professional you still haven't put a postcode so we know where you are as some places aren't covered .

link to this comment
mazbar's 384 posts GB flag
H
H J Hill
11:54 AM

Mazbar

I have no problem. COM7 on UHF transmission channel 31 has been suffering a frequent, intermittent fault for many weeks. This affects only the following Freeview channels: BBC News HD; BBC Four HD; CH4+1 HD; CH4seven HD; Aljazeera (English) HD; Community HD; Aljazeera (Arabic) SD; Motors TV SD; Jewellery Maker SD

Do not adjust your set or spend money; the problem is Arqiva's. They never acknowledged it on-air. One wonders what the legal situation is for anyone recouping money spent unnecessarily on aerials etc.

link to this comment
H J Hill's 17 posts GB flag
M
mazbar
sentiment_satisfiedGold

12:41 PM

H J Hill: There is no problem With winter hill the most likely problem is with either your tv or your aerial I have had no complaints in the ormskirk area with any multiplexes but if you are happy to think it is the transmitter that's fine but it probably won't get fixed but you will be happy how old is your aerial by the way.

link to this comment
mazbar's 384 posts GB flag
H
H J Hill
12:50 PM

Tuesday 2 December: 12:40

All Winter Hill multiplexes appear to be back on normal strength.

Some embarrassment here: in my message at 11:30 today there was an error (possibly two!). The multiplexes I identified were not off. They were on reduced power. My 12-month-old Panasonic has an insensitive HD tuner (unlike its PVR/Blue-Ray buddy of a similar age). The PVR and an old Humax HD box were able to make sense of the reduced signal here (North Yorks, near Lancs border); the Pana TV just showed "No signal" making me think the multiplexes were off.

The reduced power may also explain why DigitalUK today lists "Possible service interruptions" for the "Granada" region relays, but nothing for Winter Hill.

link to this comment
H J Hill's 17 posts GB flag
M
Mike
2:28 PM

H J Hill: I have been seeing this intermittent drop out for months on Com7 . I sent a complaint to DigitalUK about two months ago and Arquiva told them they were fixing it. I never saw any improvement at all and it is still happening, on two completely independent aerial systems (one a Log40, the other a medium gain Yagi) and two different receivers. My postcode check gives all muxes 100% in the green.
I have re-submitted a complaint to DigitalUK, and Arquiva have asked for contact details of those affected.
Most of the recordings I make on BBC4HD have a loss-of-signal flag against them because the glitch happens randomly at between two and four times an hour, but luckily the Humax's still record, glitch included.
The original fault was reported from viewers in Manchester, Macclesfield, Preston, Blackpool and others. So not local spot problems, and it's been going on for too long.

link to this comment
Mike's 4 posts GB flag
H
H J Hill
5:18 PM

Mike

You can't believe how relieved I am to read your message; I really appreciate your support and information with this. I've been starting to doubt myself.

Last week (Mon 24 Nov) I complained to DigitalUK, and they asked permission to forward my details etc to Arqiva. They haven't been in touch.

Today (Tues 2 Dec) Channel 4, to whom I'd complained (and told them they are not getting what they pay Arqiva for) have requested permission to forward my details etc to Arqiva. Let's see if that makes them get in touch.

Meanwhile, whatever was going on when Winter Hill reduced power this morning (Tues 2 Dec), it hasn't cured COM7. It dropped again at 16:19 whilst I watched 15-to-1 on CH4+1 HD.

So, I just log the events!

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H J Hill's 17 posts GB flag
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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.

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