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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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54.868,-1.771 or 54°52'5"N 1°46'15"W

DH9 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 11/11/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C39 (618.0MHz)	447m	DTG-	100,000W
	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)	447m	DTG-	100,000W
	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	H max	C45 (666.0MHz)	447m	DTG-	100,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -3dB	C32 (562.0MHz)	447m	DTG-8	50,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others
COM5 ArqA	H -3dB	C34 (578.0MHz)	447m	DTG-8	50,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H -3dB	C35 (586.0MHz)	447m	DTG-8	50,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others
LNE	H -13dB	C33 (570.0MHz)	447m	DTG-12	5,000W
	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?

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.

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 Dam	Active deflector		6 homes Holiday complex
Low Haber	Active deflector	West Allen Dale, 18 kn SW Hexham	caravan site
North Hartlepool	Transposer		84 homes

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

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2012	2012-13	13 Nov 2019
	VHF	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E T	W T
C5	BBCtv_waves
C32						SDN
C33						com7
C34						com8
C35						ArqB
C39						BBCA
C42						D3+4
C45						BBCB
C49_{tv_off}					BBCB
C50_{tv_off}					SDN
C54_{tv_off}		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	D3+4
C55_{tv_off}					ArqB	com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						LNE
C58_{tv_off}		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBCA
C59_{tv_off}					ArqA
C61		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves
C64		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves

_{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

Local transmitter maps

Pontop Pike Freeview Pontop Pike TV region BBC North East and Cumbria Tyne Tees

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

Jan 1959-Feb 2004	Tyne Tees Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

R

Robert
8:37 PM

correction - its 54 (ITV/C5/C5 etc).

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Robert's 7 posts GB flag

R

Robert
9:20 PM

and now all back... might actually be our arial (sorry).

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Robert's 7 posts GB flag

M

Mark
3:30 PM

Hi

I have built into a modern LG led t.v. but for some reason I can't pick up any of the on ARQA - Dave, Sky News etc. I used to get them until a few months ago and I've rescanned a dozen times but no luck.

I'm in South Shields so get from Pontop - anyone got any ideas?
Does anyone know the frequencies for Sky News & Dave so I can try manually putting them in?

Thanks

Mark

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Mark's 1 post GB flag

J

John Hewett
7:59 PM

Why is the of Radio as transmitted from less than the other from the same ?

This is the same for FM and .

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John Hewett's 2 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:19 PM

John Hewett:

Not being in that area I have no experience of that service. However, it is usual for such local to use more directional transmitting patterns as that allows 'targetting' to a selected area and needs less to give sufficient coverage for the intended audience. That means it is cheaper to operate (less power means less cash needed) and does not interfere so much with other nearby services.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:44 PM

John Hewett: If the "other" you refer to are the four BBC national ones then that's because they are on higher so as to serve a much larger area - or to put it another way: they reach parts that they wouldn't had their power been lower.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

M

M Bevan
5:10 PM
Durham

Motors TV has just started broadcasting on channel 71 which some people in area can receive it via a Talktalk TV box, I cannot. Any known reasons why?

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M Bevan's 3 posts GB flag

M's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

5:18 PM

M Bevan: You need a box, one that can receive DVB-T2 transmissions.

If you can't watch BBC News HD on 107, you can't watch Motors TV on 71.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts US flag

G

Gareth Phillips
8:44 AM

Getting a low background buizzing on Radio 2 FM in my car. Thought it was just my car, but somebody I work with said exactly the same this morning.

Assumed it was this only, but she drive to Manchester recently and said it was there all the way.

Cant find any other reports of this. Anybody else?

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Gareth Phillips's 2 posts GB flag

M

M Doore
5:56 PM
Darlington

Hello there

We have been having problems for some time. The main BBC & ITV are

okay most of the time, except during bad weather. Everything has been checked, from

the TV installation to the on the . All checked out OK. All subsidiary channels

are decidedly iffy most of the time.

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M Doore's 1 post GB flag

M's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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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.

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