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 
_______
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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Thursday, 17 May 2018
J
js7:40 AM
Chris.SE: All it takes to prove it is one example:
YourTV, Thu 24 May 20:00 - 21:00: Castle
Wrapped Up in Death: The death of a museum curator takes a bizarre turn when Castle and Beckett learn that he isn{'}t the first member of a recent archaeological expedition to die. (S2 Ep19)
Here, the apostrophe in -isn't- will be missing because, in the Freeview data, it is represented by invalid code 0x19.
Who knows how many Freeview devices are being crippled by this faulty data?
My attempt to inform duk was met with total ignorance.
All the Freeview EPG data is passed to a "central collator" so will not vary across the network.
Here is the same event, this time from DVBGuide's output file rather than my own:
DVBGuide - A DVB EPG capture utility:
DVBGuide - A DVB EPG capture utility
<programme channel="233a.5040.5ab0" start="20180524190000 +0000" stop="20180524200000 +0000">
<!--locator uri="dvb://233a.5040.5ab0;789b@2018-05-24T19:00:00Z/PT01H00M" -->
<!--crid type="0x32" uri="crid://www.YourTV.com/S4797936" -->
<!--crid type="0x31" uri="crid://www.YourTV.com/E3946096" -->
<title lang="en">Castle</title>
<desc lang="en">Wrapped Up in Death: The death of a museum curator takes a bizarre turn when Castle and Beckett learn that he isnt the first member of a recent archaeological expedition to die. (S2 Ep19)</desc>
<!--content id="0x30" user="0x00" -->
<category lang="en">Entertainment</category>
<language>en</language>
<!--component content="0x01" type="0x03" language="und" -->
<video>
<present>yes</present>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
</video>
<!--component content="0x02" type="0x03" language="eng" -->
<audio>
<present>yes</present>
<stereo>stereo</stereo>
</audio>
</programme>
The author of DVBGuide probably thought he was covering all eventualities by wrapping the duff codes like this: .
If so, he was wrong, as the xmltv app refuses to open the file.
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Friday, 18 May 2018
J
js5:34 AM
Chris.SE: Here is the same event, this time from DVBGuide's Freesat output file rather than Freeview:
<programme channel="2.840.d7e6" start="20180524190000 +0000" stop="20180524200000 +0000">
<!--locator uri="dvb://2.840.d7e6;789b@2018-05-24T19:00:00Z/PT01H00M" -->
<!--crid type="0x32" uri="crid://www.yourtv-uk.com/S4797936" -->
<!--crid type="0x31" uri="crid://www.yourtv-uk.com/E3946096" -->
<title lang="en">Castle</title>
<desc lang="en">Wrapped Up in Death: The death of a museum curator takes a bizarre turn when Castle and Beckett learn that he isn't the first member of a recent archaeological expedition to die. (S2 Ep19)</desc>
<!--content id="0x30" user="0x00" -->
<category lang="en">Entertainment</category>
<language>en</language>
<!--component content="0x01" type="0x03" language="und" -->
<video>
<present>yes</present>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
</video>
<!--component content="0x02" type="0x03" language="eng" -->
<audio>
<present>yes</present>
<stereo>stereo</stereo>
</audio>
</programme>
The xmltv app loads DVBGuide's Freesat output file without complaint.
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Monday, 11 June 2018
C
Chris.SE7:10 AM
js:
The only time I ever see any "corruption" to the Freeview EPG data is when the relevant information doesn't appear to completely load for whatever reason.
I don't think it's worth me commenting further on this issue as I can't add anything constructive further to what I've already said in previous posts. Sorry.
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Tuesday, 12 June 2018
J
js10:14 PM
Now 80s has moved from GIM to COM8
GIM
ONID.TSID = 233A.7401
762 MHz, uhf 57, 8 MHz, 16-QAM, 8k, 3/4, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West)U(GBR.Isle of Man)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
075 77C1 01 The Vault
089 7701 01 Now 90s
090 7601 01 TV Warehouse
091 7641 01 Clubland TV
209 7681 01 POP+1
210 7741 01 Tiny Pop+1
)
COM8
ONID.TSID = 233A.B000
plp_id = 00
T2_system_id = B02A
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
040 B100 22 Rocks & Co 1
055 B090 22 5STAR+1
086 B0E0 22 More4+1
088 B150 22 Now 80s
093 B140 22 Together
094 B130 22 PBS America
095 B110 22 FreeSports
096 B120 22 Forces TV
106 B040 25 BBC FOUR HD
111 B000 25 QVC HD
112 B010 25 QVC Beauty HD
115 B050 25 BT Showcase HD
205 B030 25 CBeebies HD
)
The static Tiny Pop+1 placard is back on GIM - together with the same old problems - continuity errors in its audio and video streams and a continually changing PAT.
Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 30 <= dPCR <= 69 ms intervals over 15 seconds for LocalMux1 North West (12/06/2018 20:44:43)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
01.193 | 00.214 | 01.012 | Tiny Pop+1
03.478 | 01.376 | 02.101 | The Vault
02.555 | 00.993 | 01.319 | Now 90s
03.038 | 01.173 | 01.756 | POP+1
02.124 | 00.922 | 01.299 | Clubland TV
01.552 | 00.623 | 00.980 | TV Warehouse
08.158 | 04.609 | 06.391 | Null Packets
03.719 | 02.193 | 03.239 | All Other Streams
18.096 | 18.096 | 18.096 | TS Bitrate
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Wednesday, 20 June 2018
J
js11:59 AM
truTV+1 was added to GIM:
GIM
ONID.TSID = 233A.7401
762 MHz, uhf 57, 8 MHz, 16-QAM, 8k, 3/4, 1/32
Target Regions = (GBR.England.North West)U(GBR.Isle of Man)
(
LCN SID TYPE SERVICE NAME
075 77C1 01 The Vault
089 7701 01 Now 90s
090 7601 01 TV Warehouse
091 7641 01 Clubland TV
092 8440 01 truTV+1
209 7681 01 POP+1
210 7741 01 Tiny Pop+1
)
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A
Andy7:44 PM
Manchester
I have not been able to watch any channel 58 or 59 programmes for the last 2 weeks; all show very low signal strength all other channels indicate max (Winter Hill. Manchester M20 2QA) There are no indications of reduced power ?
I have a rooftop aerial. 4G filter fitted.
Any suggestions
Thanks
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Andy's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln18:22 PM
Andy: If other multiplexes are indicating maximum signal then the tuner may be being overloaded by too much signal (it's effectively being deafened). Try fitting an attenuator to reduce the signal strength. Also, check for any loose or damaged cables or connections.
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Sunday, 24 June 2018
J
js8:51 AM
Invalid Codes in the Freeview EIT:
What I'm talking about here is the EIT text - the titles and descriptions of events.
There are two processing paths for the Freeview EIT.
The EIT text off DVB-T2 multiplexes is entirely Huffman coded.
The EIT text off DVB-T multiplexes is only Huffman coded for services on DVB-T2 multiplexes.
Thus a DVB-T only device will not normally encounter Huffman coded text.
Generic DVB-T2 receivers are not able to decode the Huffman coded text and will typically display gibberish - what their users often describe as Chinese.
The BBC is responsible for Huffman coding the EIT text, the objective being the ability to dictate DRM implementation requirements to manufacturers in exchange for the Huffman decode tables.
Thus the recordings made on Freeview HD certified devices are encrypted to disk and only playable on the device that they were made on.
Now that's out of the way, let's get back to the errors in the EIT text.
By observation, it has become evident that the invalid codes are the Least Significant Bytes of a group of Unicode punctuation characters.
The invalid codes seen so far are:
0x10 = LSB of Unicode Character 'HYPHEN' (U+2010)
0x13 = LSB of Unicode Character 'EN DASH' (U+2013)
0x14 = LSB of Unicode Character 'EM DASH' (U+2014)
0x18 = LSB of Unicode Character 'LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK' (U+2018)
0x19 = LSB of Unicode Character 'RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK' (U+2019)
0x1C = LSB of Unicode Character 'LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK' (U+201C)
0x1D = LSB of Unicode Character 'RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK' (U+201D)
The Current State:
The Freeview EIT stream, together with the NIT, SDT and TDT/TOT streams, were recorded for 360 seconds off BBC A and BBC B multiplexes.
The overall EIT cycle time is 300 seconds so recording for 360 seconds ensures all events are captured.
The file off BBC A was 33.4 MB.
The file off BBC B was 19.0 MB.
The BBC B file was much smaller because of the Huffman coding - a lossless compression.
Only the EIT text from events from services carried on DVB-T2 multiplexes is Huffman coded in the EIT off BBC A.
The files were processed by my EIT program which produced xmltv output files:
North West_BBC A__2018 06 23 041950.xml - 31.2 MB and North West_BBC B__2018 06 23 042617.xml - 31.0 MB.
Upon loading these files, the xmltv viewer app, TVGuide, reported:
"Loaded 33518 in 7.015625 seconds, spanning 23/6/2018 to 01/07/2018" for North West_BBC A__2018 06 23 041950.xml
and
"Loaded 33518 in 7.609375 seconds, spanning 23/6/2018 to 01/07/2018" for North West_BBC B__2018 06 23 042617.xml
The files thus contained the same number, 33518, of events.
My EIT program has a subroutine which substitutes meaningful strings for the invalid codes:
Private Sub fixbadcode(b As Byte, s As String)
Select Case b
Case &H10 'Unicode Character 'HYPHEN' (U+2010)
s = s + "{-}"
Case &H13 'Unicode Character 'EN DASH' (U+2013)
s = s + "{-}"
Case &H14 'Unicode Character 'EM DASH' (U+2014)
s = s + "{-}"
Case &H18 ''LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK' (U+2018)
s = s + "{L'}"
Case &H19 ''RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK' (U+2019)
s = s + "{R'}"
Case &H1C 'Unicode Character 'LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK' (U+201C)
s = s + "{L''}"
Case &H1D 'Unicode Character 'RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK' (U+201D)
s = s + "{R''}"
Case Else
Stop
s = s + "[0x" + hexbyte(b) + "]"
End Select
End Sub
So, for example, invalid code 0x19 is replaced by {R'} signifying 'RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK'.
The curly brackets that enclose the strings are not found in normal EIT text and are used to search for and locate the invalid codes in the output file.
TVGuide has the useful ability to count and display events based on text in event descriptions.
I have defined a "highlighter" in TVGuide as "{ in Description".
Thus upon loading North West_BBC A__2018 06 23 041950.xml, TVGuide shows "{ in Description(710)", indicating there are 710 events that contain invalid codes in the EIT captured off BBC A.
Clicking on the highlighter displays those events.
Upon loading North West_BBC B__2018 06 23 042617.xml, TVGuide shows "{ in Description(17)", indicating there are 17 events that contain invalid codes in the EIT captured off BBC B.
Looking at those events showed they were all off services carried on DVB-T2 multiplexes.
TVGuide also has the ability to restrict its display to categories, for example Sport or Movies.
In my EIT program, I created a "DVB-T2" category to restrict display to events on services carried on DVB-T2 multiplexes.
Upon loading North West_BBC A__2018 06 23 041950.xml and selecting the "DVB-T2" category and clicking the "highlighter" "{ in Description(710)", the same 17 events as those off BBC B were displayed.
So when the invalid codes originate in events from services carried on DVB-T2 multiplexes, they are the same whether the EIT is captured from BBC A or BBC B.
What happened to all the rest? There are 710 events containing invalid codes in the EIT off BBC A - but a mere 17 in the EIT off BBC B.
The invalid codes have simply been omitted in EIT text off BBC B.
This solution causes grammatical errors such as thats in place of that's and cant for can't.
I give a single example to illustrate here:
This event has an invalid code in its title:
Channel 5 HD, Mon 25 Jun 04:00 - 04:45: Now That{R'}s Funny
This error is present regardless of EIT origin and Huffman coded because it is off a service carried on a DVB-T2 multiplex.
The SD version of the event off the Huffman coded BBC B EIT:
Channel 5, Mon 25 Jun 04:00 - 04:45: Now Thats Funny
The invalid code for the intended apostrophe has been omitted, rendering a grammatically incorrect "thats".
The SD version of the event off the non-Huffman coded BBC A EIT:
Channel 5, Mon 25 Jun 04:00 - 04:45: Now That{R'}s Funny
The invalid code for the intended apostrophe is present.
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Sunday, 1 July 2018
M
Mark Jolly3:36 PM
I have just moved to the. Bromley Cross area of Bolton BL79NY and am in line of sight of the transmitter at Winter Hill. The house does not currently have an aerial. Can you suggest a suitable aerial for my area. Regards Mark
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MikeP
5:11 PM
5:11 PM
Mark Jolly:
As you are just 6 km away frok the transmitter at Winter Hill, you only need a small aerial fitted, which could be in a loft or external. You need to avoid having too much signal so a high gain aerial is not needed, but it is best to have a directional aerial to avoid external interference, hence having a small aerial fitted. Note that there is no such thing as a 'digital' aerial (that's a ploy to increase the costs) as the aerial does not care how the signals are modulated on the carrier.
You should aim to have between 60% and 85% signal strength on all multipexes available. Put your post code into the Digital UK Coverage Checker at Digital UK - Coverage checker and it will tell you the channels currently being used.
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