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Full Freeview on the Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps54.868,-1.771 or 54°52'5"N 1°46'15"Wsa_postcodeDH9 9AT

 

The symbol shows the location of the Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) transmitter which serves 700,000 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 Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) mast?

Pontop Pike transmitter - Pontop Pike transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Pontop Pike 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C39 (618.0MHz)447mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) North East and Cumbria, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C42 (642.0MHz)447mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Tyne Tees), 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 (Tyne Tees),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C45 (666.0MHz)447mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD North East and Cumbria, 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 -3dB
C32 (562.0MHz)447mDTG-850,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -3dB
C34 (578.0MHz)447mDTG-850,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -3dB
C35 (586.0MHz)447mDTG-850,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LNE
 H -13dB
C33 (570.0MHz)447mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd September 2014: 7 Made in Tyne and Wear,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Pontop Pike transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Look North (Newcastle) 1.6m homes 6.0%
from Newcastle NE99 2NE, 15km northeast (42°)
to BBC North East and Cumbria region - 70 masts.
regional news image
ITV Tyne Tees News 1.4m homes 5.4%
from Gateshead NE11 9SZ, 12km north-northeast (29°)
to ITV Tyne Tees region - 47 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with Border

Are there any self-help relays?

Kieldor DamActive deflector6 homes Holiday complex
Low HaberActive deflectorWest Allen Dale, 18 kn SW Hexham caravan site
North HartlepoolTransposer84 homes

How will the Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20122012-1313 Nov 2019
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TW T
C5BBCtvwaves
C32SDN
C33com7
C34com8
C35ArqB
C39BBCA
C42D3+4
C45BBCB
C49tv_offBBCB
C50tv_offSDN
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4
C55tv_offArqBcom7tv_off
C56tv_offLNE
C58tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCA
C59tv_offArqA
C61ITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves
C64BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 12 Sep 12 and 26 Sep 12.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 500kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 50kW
com8(-11.6dB) 34.6kW
com7(-11.7dB) 33.8kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-17dB) 10kW
LNE(-20dB) 5kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Pontop Pike transmitter area

Jan 1959-Feb 2004Tyne Tees Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Pontop Pike was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.

Comments
Wednesday, 26 January 2022
B
Brian Richardson
4:24 PM

Chris.SE: Data with amp gain tweak as follows:

Normal max gain readings
PSB1 - strength 80/85, bit error 0
PSB2 - strength 80/85, bit error 0
PSB3 - strength 96, bit error varying 280 to 400 (but good picture no sign of pixelation etc)
Com 4 - strength 85, bit error 0
Com 5 - strength 75, bit error 0
Com 6 - strength 70, bit error 0
Com 7 - strength 96, bit error varying between 280 and 400

Gain reduced to about half
PSB1 - strength 80, bit error 0
PSB2 - strength 80, bit error 0
PSB3 - strength 96, bit error varying 320 to 420 (but good picture no sign of pixelation etc)
Com 4 - strength 75, bit error 0
Com 5 - strength 60, bit error 0
Com 6 - strength 60, bit error 0
Com 7 - strength 96, bit error varying between 360 to 440

Reception was good over the weekend so decided to do a channel scan, low and behold up pops the local multiplex, never any sign of this in previous scans so things are looking good. I have had poor to average reception since moving in to the house last August but it looks to me as if the problem has been mainly at the transmission end rather than house set up, although I did add the amplifier so that is a difference. Very happy at the moment, and improvement seems to be stable touch wood!

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Brian Richardson's 11 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:44 PM

Brian Richardson:

Too much gain can also be a bad thing. Depending on the response of that aerial you have (some aerial can have a very peaky response curve), it may still turn out to be a compromise with slightly lower gain to minimise the errors. See how things go on. Tropo still about but not always causing a problem.

Going forwards, you might want to consider a change of aerial (after COM7 closes). I'd probably go for a log periodic with a 700MHz filter (ie ch.21-48) they've got a pretty flat response.
Post back if you need more help/have any queries at any time.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
B
Brian Richardson
11:33 PM

Chris.SE: Thank you very much for your help Chris. Aerial info noted, this will be a great when the time comes , will post back if any further issues. Cheers for now!

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Brian Richardson's 11 posts GB flag
Sunday, 30 January 2022
T
Tracey Iceton
8:45 AM

Hi, since the retune on 26 Jan I've lost some free view channels (19-22; 24, 25, 27-29, 31-34, 36-49) from one of my digital recorders, the other digi recorder and both TVs have all the channels. I've tried automatic and manual retunes to no affect. When I run the auto tuning the channels appear on the list of found channels with their normal (new) channel numbers for a few seconds than all the numbers go to zero, as if it found them then lost them again. We get our signal from Pontop Pike. If anyone has any advice I'd appreciate it. It's a Sagemcom freeview+Hd box. Thanks.

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Tracey Iceton's 7 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:22 PM

Tracey Iceton:

Hi. Whilst reception can vary across your postcode, those channels are spread across several multiplexes and as you other sets have all channels it's unlikely to be a reception issue, but do check your coax plugs and connections to the box, make sure they are clean and no corrosion.

It sounds more like the box has got it's memory in a bit of a slate, the channels may for example have gone in the 800s. Whilst I'm not familiar with this particular Sagem box (if anyone is they could perhaps comment), there's a couple of things you could try.
First, unplug the aerial and carry out a full automatic retune. This will hopefully clear all existing tuning. Plug the aerial back in and do a manual tune if possible on UHF channels C39, C42, C45, C32, C34, C35, C55.
if that hasn't worked, then a box reset may be the only option BUT this may clear any scheduled recordings BUT more importantly it may clear any existing recordings, best to check it's manual as there may be other things that may work.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Monday, 31 January 2022
T
Tracey Iceton
7:34 PM

Thanks, Chris, I'll give that a go!

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Tracey Iceton's 7 posts GB flag
Monday, 14 February 2022
G
George
8:26 PM
Whitley Bay

Ne25 9hz aerial on roof

TV says no signal and has been like that all day today. What is the problem?

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George's 1 post GB flag
George's: ...
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:14 PM

George:

There don't appear to be any reported faults for Pontop Pike and it's not currently listed for Planned Engineering.

I would check that your aerial is still on the roof, seems intact and pointing in the correct direction (almost due SW for you) and that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old) and is secure and not flapping in the wind.

Have you checked the connections behind your TV?
Check all your coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc, unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. Flyleads are a common problem, try swapping/changing them. See if you have any signal strengths and quality for the multiplexes (groups of channels) shown in your TV's tuning section, that information may indicate issues with your aerial or downlead or possibly any distribution amp/splitter you may have..
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.

Have you changed anything in your setup at all?
Make sure you don't have any HDMI leads near unscreened/poorly screened flyleads/aerial leads especially if those aren't double screened coax as HDMI has been known to cause interference.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Sunday, 14 August 2022
A
Anita Carter
7:33 PM
Redcar

TS11 8HR. Aerial in loft. No problems until 2 days ago at 7 -8pm when the picture broke up and oi lost the signal for a short while. The same thing last night and tonight the signal has been gone for about 10 minutes with no sign of returning.

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Anita Carter's 1 post GB flag
Anita's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:36 PM

Anita Carter:

Considering your location, it is most likely to be due to current weather conditions.
Both the BBC and Freeview have issued warnings for short term interference to reception.

It's due to what's called "Tropospheric Ducting" which can occur with high pressure and where Interference from distant transmitters in Europe or the UK can cause loss of signal for periods of time.
Do NOT retune as it can clear your correct tuning and you end up incorrectly tuned to another transmitter and the signals disappear when conditions change.

It's periodically affecting different parts of the country and at present seems to be affecting the whole East of the country, the whole of the South Coast and parts of West Wales.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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