Digital Switch Over was recently completed at the Winter Hill transmitter - arguably the first site serving a large urban area to do so. The city of Manchester is home to a diverse range of PMSE users, including large TV studios, numerous concert venues & theatres, sports venues, and all number of community users; all sitting in Winter Hill's coverage area.
As the analogue signals in area were being switched off, myself & Principle Engineer Simon Eley visited the city in JFMG's survey vehicle. We were able to conduct signal measurements in and around some of the key venues in the area to help us better understand the availabilty of spectrum in Manchester. And a trip west along the M62 allowed us to do more of the same on Merseyside.
Now DSO has completed, the six analogue services serving the city have closed whilst the digital services have moved frequency and gone up in power. These changes have been fully refelected on the UHF Mic Location Planner on JFMG's Web Site. As a result users of microphone frequencies above 742 MHz will notice improved availability of useable spectrum in this range in and around the city.