Before DSO a Middleton resident wrote: "Decent TV reception is difficult to come by, as many parts of Middleton are too low lying to receive good reception from Winter Hill. Since the launch of Channel 5 the Middleton Transmitter, has been plagued by co-channel interference on Channel 4 (which now transmits on Channel 37 not Channel 48), the interference is a Channel 5 signal persumably from Emley Moor?. Channel 5 is also plagued by co-channel interference from what appears to be BBC1. BBC 1 now transmits on Channel 57."
The history of the Middleton Tx site is that it entered service on 29-Nov-1985 using a non-standard wideband channel allocation of 67/34/30/48. As UHF channel 48 was to be used by Channel 5 at Winter Hill, Channel 4 at Middleton was moved to UHF channel 37. Probably sometime during 1996, as Channel 5 launched in March 1997. Channel 5 was also added at Middleton on UHF channel 22. On 5th September 2000, BBC1 was moved to UHF channel 57 as UHF channel 67 was now required at Winter Hill for pre-DSO DTT multiplex B, as part of the changes implemented to equalise DTT coverage across all 6 multiplexes.
Digital switchover has now relegated these issues to history. |
