Freeview Light on the Seaham (County Durham, England) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 54.830,-1.376 or 54°49'47"N 1°22'33"W |  | SR7 8LB |
The symbol shows the location of the Seaham (County Durham, England) transmitter which serves 6,700 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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Seaham (County Durham, England) transmitter._______
Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Seaham (County Durham, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, FRANCE 24 (in English), GREAT! action, GREAT! christmas, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.
If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.
Which Freeview channels does the Seaham 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 | V max | C41 (634.0MHz) | 150m | DTG- | 100W |
 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 | V max | C44 (658.0MHz) | 150m | DTG- | 100W |
 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), 71 That’s 60s, | |||||
| PSB3 BBCB | V max | C47 (682.0MHz) | 150m | DTG- | 100W |
 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 | |||||
Are you trying to watch these 44 Freeview channels?
The Seaham (County Durham, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, FRANCE 24 (in English), GREAT! action, GREAT! christmas, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.
If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Seaham transmitter?
BBC Look North (Newcastle) 1.6m homes 6.0%
from Newcastle NE99 2NE, 22km northwest (315°)
to BBC North East and Cumbria region - 70 masts.
ITV Tyne Tees News 1.4m homes 5.4%
from Gateshead NE11 9SZ, 24km northwest (308°)
to ITV Tyne Tees region - 47 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with Border
How will the Seaham (County Durham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 13 Nov 2019 | |||||
| B E T | B E T | B E T | B E K T | B E K T | |||||
| C41 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCB | BBCA | ||||
| C44 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | D3+4 | ||||
| C47 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | D3+4 | BBCB | ||||
| C51tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves |
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?
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | 100W | |
| Analogue 1-4 | (-2.3dB) 59W |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Pontop Pike transmitter area
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Saturday, 8 July 2023
A
Alan Thompson12:29 AM
New transmitter Bilsdale is now live to replace burnt out transmitter, same problems. Today no channels since teatime and everytime there is high pressure we lose services, currently none available on freeview. Apparently Seaham (SR7) is in a shadow area and you'd have thought when a new transmitter was installed it would eradicate those shadow areas but maybe we aren't important enough to put it right.
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Chris.SE1:53 AM
Alan Thompson:
The new (replacement) Bilsdale mast started transmitting TV signals on the 22nd May and the HD services on the 4th June. Work is yet to be completed to fully restore Radio, Mobile and other services.
It was never intended, nor indeed possible to amend the coverage provided by the transmitter. The coverage and transmitter powers are controlled by international agreements. The mast height and antennae are like for like with the old mast. Those areas that are in a "shadow" will remain so, due to the location of the transmitter and the terrain between it and any such given locations.
Parts of Seaham, primarily the coast to the South of Seaham can get good signals from Bilsdale.
Other parts of Seaham can only get signals from the Seaham relay transmitter (PSB multiplexes only) which should give good coverage to the whole Seaham area, and it is technically a relay of the Pontop Pike transmitter which cannot reliably be received in Seaham.
We do need a full postcode to look at your predicted reception from the various transmitters.
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Steve Donaldson3:44 PM
Alan Thompson: If your aerial points to Bilsdale then check that the PSB channels of BBC1 and ITV are in fact tuned to Bilsdale and not the local Seaham relay. It is a possibility across the area that automatic tuning could pick up the relay instead of the main transmitter, thereby potentially resulting in variable or intermittent reception. Checking the receiver is tuned to the correct transmitter is the first thing to do in such a situation.
Without being familiar with the area, and having looked at the map I thought that the Seaham relay is well-placed to give good signal across the whole town. However, having plotted the terrain at sample locations in Northlea, Deneside and Dawdon it turns out that the line-of-sight path to rooftops, where it exists is low to rooftops under it.
Owing to the fire at Bilsdale, the transmission power at Seaham was increased and a horizontal component added. We don't know whether this has been reverted back to how it was before. The vertical component is a cardioid from a little before 12-o'clock position to a little beyond four-o'clock position (see the radiation pattern shown above on this page). The HP signal isn't as wide as the VP one, judging by the photos on mb21. In those photos it appears to point north (or thereabouts), the opposite direction to Bilsdale. The Freeview predictor says that the VP is 200W and the HP is 600W. It is therefore more likely than before that receivers in the area could pick up the Seaham relay where the aerial points to Bilsdale (or Pontop Pike).
The Freeview predictor seems to be the only source of technical parameters for TV. Ofcom publishes a technical parameters spreadsheet for broadcast radio but I haven't found an equivalent for TV. We also don't know whether the Seaham relay (and other relays) have been reverted back to how they were prior to the Bilsdale fire, and if they have not been, whether they will be or whether they will be left as is. It's quite possible that the Freeview predictor hasn't been updated. It still shows the higher-power Eston Nab HP signals (installed following the Bilsdale fire).
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Chris.SE4:36 PM
Nottingham
Steve Donaldson:
Just to add a bit more technical interest/confusion into the mix (not really relevant for Alan Thompson) but both Sunderland and Seaham which are both relays of Pontop Pike both had HP added in 2022 (Jan. & March respectively) yet according to the OFCOM spreadsheer they are both SFNs with Chatton!!
This has got to be an error on the spreadsheet as Sunderland uses different UHF channels - confirmed in the 2019 Clearance, and reception of Chatton at Seaham is listed as poor, in fact so poor there are no details, so can it be SFN, I can find no confirmation of that anywhere else?
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Chris.SE's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 9 July 2023
S
Steve Donaldson1:00 AM
Chris.SE: Yes, I noticed that too.
The only reason I can think is because there was a plan to use 29, 31 and 37 elsewhere in the area which overlaps Sunderland and Seaham. After all, if it were to be only Sunderland (where the overlap would occur) then Seaham could have used 29, 31 and 37, with just Sunderland SFN with Chatton. But then why wasn't the plan to have Sunderland as SFN with Pontop Pike?
Before 700MHz Clearance, Seaham was co-channel with Chatton's COMs on 41, 44 and 47. Seaham stayed the same, and Chatton's PSBs moved onto its COM channels, thus Seaham is co-channel with Chatton's PSBs now. Chatton got three new channels for its COMs, which are 29, 31 and 37.
Seaham broadcasts northwards into Sunderland's area and therefore if they were co-channel reception would be limited by interference unless they were SFN. Similarly, Sunderland's coverage area has viewers of Chatton.
Pontop Pike isn't used much to the east of Sunderland City Centre. Bilsdale is used quite a bit and this must have been why they added the horizontal component to the Sunderland relay.
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Monday, 21 October 2024
Transmitter engineering
10:47 AM
10:47 AM
Seaham transmitter - Seaham transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 21/10/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels [DUK]
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Monday, 28 October 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:09 AM
5:09 AM
Seaham transmitter - Seaham transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 28/10/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels [DUK]
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Tuesday, 29 October 2024
M
Michael Bullen4:49 PM
I am at Seaham and all the BBC connects all OK but since last Monday all the other channels are not clear they flicker so why is this it happened before when the transmitter had to placed
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Wednesday, 30 October 2024
C
Chris.SE1:00 AM
Michael Bullen:
As per the post just before yours, the transmitter is the subject of Planned Engineering, so this is what could be affecting your reception. But as you haven't given a full postcode we can't assess how good your normal reception may be and whether you may be affected by the local terrain.
Hope you haven't tried to retune, either with badly pixelated pictures or no signal as this often clears the correct tuning (or tunes you to weak, variable and unreliable signals from another transmitter.
You cannot tune to signals that aren't there or can't be decoded.
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