Winter Hill digital TV transmitter (no analogue)

Winter Hill digital switchover schedule

Note: This is the only schedule for digital switchover. Digital services cannot be introduced before the dates listed for "testing purposes" as they will generally use the same transmission frequencies as the services they replace. Another alternative, available today, is Freesat.

Winter Hill Full Freeview transmitter details - full details of the Freeview services fron Winter Hill.

December 2009 S M T W T F S - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 - -

BBC One North West, BBC Two England, ITV-1 Granada, five and Channel 4 analogue switched off. It will be necessary to perform a full rescan of your Freeview box on this day.

Transmission frequencies

Before Sunday 15th November 1998

C48	C55	C59	C62	C65
FIVE	BBC One	ITV1	BBC TWO	C4

Sunday 15th November 1998 to Wednesday 4th November 2009

C48	C55	C56+	C59	C60+	C62	C63+	C65	C66+	C67+	C68+
FIVE	BBC One	Mux 1	ITV1	Mux C	BBC TWO	Mux D	C4	Mux 2	Mux B	Mux A

After Wednesday 2nd December 2009¶

C54-	C55	C56	C57	C58	C59	C60	C61-	C62-
Mux BBCB	Mux ArqB	Mux NEW8	Mux MEN	Mux SDN	Mux D3+4	Mux NEW9	Mux ArqA	Mux BBCA

¶ NOTE: Winter Hill Arqiva B will operate at 12.5kW until 2011

Colour bands denote aerial groups: Red:A Yellow:B Green:C/D Brown:E Grey:K Black:Wideband

Notes

'Out of group' frequencies are marked with a star. Analogue power output 500,000 Watts, post switchover average digital multiplex output will be 57,056 Watts.

To receive signals from this transmitter, the aerial must be mounted for horizontal polarization - the elements going from left to right.

Before switchover, the public service broadcasting multiplexes were 1, 2 and B; afterwards they were first PSB1, 2 and 3 but now called BBCA, D3+4 and BBCB. The commercial multiplexes A, C and D had initial post-switchover names COM4, 5 and 6; now they are SDN, ArqA and ArqB. At switchover BBCA, ArqA and ArqB will switch from 16QAM to 64QAM mode transmission, so five multiplexes will transmit in the 64QAM (2/3) 8k mode. BBCB is used for Freeview HD (DVB-T2, 256QAM), and has a pre-switchover service on selected main transmitters.

After switchover an existing group C/D aerial will provide all digital TV services.

Comparison of analogue and digital signal levels

Analogue 1-4
	500kW
SDN, ARQA, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB
	100kW (-7dB)
Analogue 5, ARQB
	12.5kW (-16dB)
Mux1*, Mux2*, MuxA*, MuxB*, MuxC*, MuxD*
	10kW (-17dB)
MEN
	1000W (-27dB)
*-pre digital switchover (DSO). Decibel values compare to strongest signal value.

The aerial must be mounted horizontally, with the elements in the left-right position

See full list of analogue transmitters for a complete list of shutdown dates.

itv1 - Winter Hill transmitter area*

Date	Incumbent ITV company
3rd May 1956 to July 1968	Granada Television (weekdays only)
5th May 1956 to July 1968	Associated British Corporation (weekends)
July 1968 to date	Granada Television
1st Feb 1983 to 31st Dec 1992	TV-am (breakfast)
1st Jan 1993 to date	GMTV (breakfast)
Note	For digital switchover this region is now known as Granada.

* This Winter Hill ITV transmitter came into service on VHF 405-line on 3rd May 1956; dates before this indicate the history of the ITV company it belonged to when Winter Hill began transmission.

405-line VHF black and white TV

From the Winter Hill transmitter, BBC One was broadcast on VHF C12. ITV was broadcast on VHF C9. In the United Kingdom, 405-line television was used from 1936-39 and 1946 until 1982-85.

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