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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Wednesday, 11 March 2020
J
js6:16 AM
Ken W: You could use Wake-on-LAN and Remote Desktop Connection if you have a machine with you.
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J
js6:19 AM
Bad Characters Update
It's interesting to look at these events on the Freeview site:
TV Guide | Freeview
When I looked on there a few weeks ago, they were displaying the correct characters. They now seem to be using the same corrupt data they transmit.
For example, take error event #327 below:
This is what's transmitted:
******************
Al Jazeera Eng, Fri 13 Mar 20:00 - 21:00: title = "The Coming War On China", description = "Journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn't {--} that the world's greatest military power, the U.S. may well be on the road to war with China."
******************
Freeview site:
******************
The Coming War On China
13 Mar 2020 - 8:00pm - 9:00pm
Download our Freeview mobile app
Summary
Journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn't that the world's greatest military power, the U.S. may well be on the road to war with China.
******************
Note how ungrammatical that is without the --
A shortened error report follows:
Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North West multiplex BBC A. Date: 2020/03/11 02:31:50
It has become apparent through observation that invalid bytes in the Freeview EIT text strings are the low-order bytes of the Unicode General Punctuation Block:
Of course only bytes less than 0x20 qualify as invalid codes in the context of EIT text strings.
Since about April 2018, the following invalid codes have been found in the Freeview EIT text items:
0x01, substitute: {0x01} -> Unicode Character: "EM QUAD" (U + 2001)
0x08, substitute: { } -> Unicode Character: "PUNCTUATION SPACE" (U + 2008)
0x0B, substitute: {} -> Unicode Character: "ZERO WIDTH SPACE" (U + 200B)
0x10, substitute: {-} -> Unicode Character: "HYPHEN" (U + 2010)
0x13, substitute: {--} -> Unicode Character: "EN DASH" (U + 2013)
0x14, substitute: {---} -> Unicode Character: "EM DASH" (U + 2014)
0x18, substitute: {L'} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2018)
0x19, substitute: {R'} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2019)
0x1C, substitute: {L''} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201C)
0x1D, substitute: {R''} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201D)
There are 1235 invalid codes in the current EIT:
invalid code, count, percentage
0x13, 4, 0.32%
0x18, 25, 2.02%
0x19, 1144, 92.63%
0x1C, 31, 2.51%
0x1D, 31, 2.51%
There are 942 events with invalid codes in the current EIT.
The Culprits:
Format:
service_name, number of events containing errors
BBC World Sv., 6
BBC Radio 4, 1
BBC World Sv., 6
BBC Radio 4, 1
Yaaas!, 17
Blaze, 22
ADULT Studio 66, 32
Planet Knowledge, 24
Sports Channel Network, 112
Ketchup TV, 11
RNIB Connect, 3
Food Network, 1
Sony Movies, 21
POP, 69
Al Jazeera Eng, 4
PBS America, 4
Sony Channel +1, 24
POP Max, 126
Tiny Pop, 85
Sony Movies +1, 3
Sony Channel, 28
Sony Movies Classic, 2
That's TV, 48
Tiny Pop, 85
Sony Movies +1, 3
Sony Channel, 28
Sony Movies Classic, 2
That's TV, 48
Tiny Pop, 85
Sony Movies +1, 3
Sony Channel, 28
Sony Movies Classic, 2
PBS America +1, 8
Events with invalid codes in the eight-day EIT off multiplex BBC A at 2020/03/11 02:31:50:
#1: BBC World Sv., Wed 11 Mar 11:32 - 12:00: title = "13 Minutes to the Moon", description = "1/6. {L''}Houston, we've had a problem.{R''} To ignite catastrophe would take just the flick of a single switch. Why Nasa's third bid to land on the Moon was flawed from the start.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D
...
#4: BBC World Sv., Tue 17 Mar 04:32 - 05:00: title = "In the Studio", description = "Nicknamed the {L''}first lady of graffiti{R''}, Ecuadorian-American artist Lady Pink talks murals, music and money.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D
...
#7: BBC Radio 4, Sun 15 Mar 08:10 - 08:48: title = "Sunday Worship", description = "From St Patrick's Church, Coleraine, on the Lenten theme, {L''}Care for God's Creation{R''}.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D
...
#15: Yaaas!, Wed 11 Mar 00:30 - 01:00: title = "Wallace and Gromit's...", description = "... Cracking Contrapitions. From the Soccamatic to the 535 Crackervac, Wallace{R'}s inventions are truly imaginative if not always the most efficient!", description error byte: 0x19
...
#327: Al Jazeera Eng, Fri 13 Mar 20:00 - 21:00: title = "The Coming War On China", description = "Journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn't {--} that the world's greatest military power, the U.S. may well be on the road to war with China.", description error byte: 0x13
...
#942: PBS America +1, Wed 18 Mar 15:20 - 15:55: title = "Steven Raichlen's...", description = "...Project Fire: Raichlen{R'}s Rules: In this episode, Steven looks at fundamental techniques that he has employed over the years. (Part 12 of 12)", Huffman coded, description error byte: 0x19
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Friday, 13 March 2020
R
Richard Simmonds4:05 PM
Congleton
Since retuning completely as directed in February we have had pixelation on many channels, which had been OK before.
Today I went through the first 50 channels and the first few HD channels; these were unwatchable or had no reception:
Unwatchable MPlex NO RECEPTION MPlex
11 Pick COM5 7 LM
17 Really COM5 8 NOT IN LIST ?
19 Dave COM5 48 ?
32 Sony Movies COM5 50 ?
38 Quest Red COM5
41 Food Network COM5
45 Fim4+1 COM5
46 COM5
101 BBC1 HD BBCB
102 BBC2 HD BBCB
103 ITV HD BBCB
How can I fix this? My postcode is CW12 3TW and the roof aerial points to Bolton (Winter Hill transmitter)
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Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE11:38 PM
Richard Simmonds:
This looks like you may have picked up tuning from another transmitter for COM5 & PSB3/BBCB HD as the only change at Winter Hill in February was the move of the PSB1/BBCA multiplex from UHF C50 to C32, If you are having no issues with those channels in their normal LCNs in the EPG, it seems you shouldn't have an aerial issue. (Be aware that the BBCA mux is also simulcasting on its old channel C50 so that people with aerial problems have time to get it resolved before this ceases with the final changes on April 22nd. Those programmes will be found at LCNs 751 et seq. in the EPG.)
Probably the easiest way to deal with this normally is to unplug the aerial and carry out a full automatic retune which should clear all previous tuning as no channels are found. Then plug the aerial back in and repeat the retune, hopefully all channels will be restored in their normal LCNs. (For the time being you'll still find the old BBCA mux channels in LCNs 751 et seq.).
You should have no problem receiving all the main multiplexes PSBs1-3, COMs4-6, also COMs7&8 at your location. Some of the local Manchester multiplexes, you may receive with marginal variable to poor reception.
See Channel listings | Freeview for which channels are on which multiplex.
Post back and tell us if the retunes suggested resolve the problem.
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Monday, 16 March 2020
M
Mazbar12:52 PM
In the light of the covid 19 outbreak do you think the April 22nd retune will be postponed. I have 25 retunes booked in already.
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MikeP
8:02 PM
8:02 PM
Mazbar:
The engineers who carry out the work at the transmitters do not come into contact with members of the public as a rule so they are unlikely to postpone their work. You may need to consider you own health security in light of today's Government announcements.
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Tuesday, 17 March 2020
G
Grahame Phillips5:33 AM
Stockport
Since the Freeview Retune I have lost most of my HD Channels, I have done a Factory Reset of the Box, I have done an Aerial Out/Aerial In Retune and all the HD Channels are on the Guide. I can watch BBC 4 HD, QVC HD, QVC BEAUTY HD, QUEST HD and CBEEBIES HD all the rest say No Signal. When I try a Manual Retune Channels 54, 55 and 57 will Not Scan Due To Signal. I had ALL the HD Channels before the Retune. I have a Communal Aerial (which I know has been Upgraded but not gone Live yet) My Postcode is SK1 3PD. Any ideas?
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Grahame's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE4:31 PM
Grahame Phillips:
The Winter Hill retune back on 20th Feb. only moved PSB1/BBCA to C32 and COM8 to C56. So you shouldn't be having any problems with the PSB3/BBCB HD multiplex on C54. Although IIRC there may have been Planned Engineering at Winter Hill last week which may not have helped. COM7 was already on C55, and isn't due to change channel and as you have no problem with COM8, I'm surprised you can't get COM7.
The mux on C57 is one of the local ones and is predicted to give poor reception at your location.
When you say the communal Aerial has been upgraded but not gone live, I'm not sure why the reception of all the HD muxes would be affected. Do you know if the distribution is a channelised system? Maybe something isn't set correctly. The Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker indicates there shouldn't be a problem with reception of these at you location. I would check if your neighbours are having similar issues and chase the building maintenance people if you all are.
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Saturday, 21 March 2020
K
Ken W3:34 PM
js: & Chris.SE:
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I did think of RDC but things have moved on now. Due to the virus situation I'll be remaining in the local area so will be able to configure things manually myself on the 22nd April.
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Saturday, 28 March 2020
C
Chris.SE9:10 PM
ALL:
April 22nd Retune is now postponed due to the Covid-19 situation, see https://www.ofcom.org.uk/….pdf
Putting postcodes into the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker is now just indicating a date of 2021, presumably something more specific will be stated when it's decided in the future.
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