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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
Friday, 3 February 2017
R
Robert Driscoll
3:44 PM

Hi, Could you please tell me when I will be able to receive BBC Newcastle in HD.

Cheers, Rob.

link to this comment
Robert Driscoll's 1 post GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:59 PM

Robert Driscoll: The BBC haven't announced any dates for any regional news programs to begin broadcasting in HD yet. Although they have previously suggested that they could start rolling out HD regions in England this year, but no further details have been announced yet.

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
Thursday, 9 March 2017
N
Neville Bougourd
3:59 PM

In the part of England where I live there is a very bright light in the sky that appears to be stationary and is too low to be a planet or star - is this some kind of geostationary satellite? I live within one mile of Pontop Pike TV Mast

link to this comment
Neville Bougourd's 2 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:41 PM

Neville Bougourd: A geostationary satellite would be much too far away to be able to see it and would have no reason to have any lights. It's more likely that you're seeing an aircraft warning light on a tall structure.

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StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
N
Neville Bougourd
6:38 PM

Neville Bougourd: It is very definitely high in the sky - far too high to be on any building on this planet! My neighbours think it is Venus, but it is always in the same position, always very bright but it looks too close to be a planet. I have lived here for more than 30 years but I have only noticed it in the last 3/4 years

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Neville Bougourd's 2 posts GB flag
Friday, 10 March 2017
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:30 PM

Neville Bougourd:

It is definitely not a satellite in geo-stationary orbit as they are over 37000 km above the Equator, so far too far away to be seen with the naked eye from the ground - nor even with binoculars. A very large optical telescope might allow you to see such.

It is also not a planet as they are constantly moving across the sky as are the stars.

So that leaves a light on a man-made structure. All tall masts are requires to show a navigation warning light, which is almost always red. You don't say what colour the light appears to be nor in which direction from your location (we don't know where you live as you have not given a post code). That it appears to have been there for at least a few years means it is probably a mast with a warning light for aircraft.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Thursday, 30 March 2017
S
susan
10:16 PM
Newcastle Upon Tyne

Neville Bougourd: hi my cousin has just moved into a bungalow at ne27 0ph she has a free view TV, would an indoor aerial pick up TV from pon top pike transmitter
Thanks sue

link to this comment
susan's 1 post GB flag
susan's: ...
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:09 PM

susan: Signal strength is predicted to the strong for Pontop Pike at that postcode, so assuming there is no aerial on the roof or in the loft it would be worth trying an indoor aerial. The best type to get are ones that look like a smaller version of the aerials you see on rooftops, rather than the loop type ones (which are just a piece of wire sticking out of an amplifier).

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StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
Friday, 31 March 2017
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:22 PM

Susan:

Further to that said by StevensOnln1, a drawback of an aerial in the same room as the TV set is that people moving around in the vicinity can seriously affect reception, even people in an adjacent room or next door! That is why it is usually better to have an aerial fitted so that the prezence of people does not cause variable reception.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Monday, 1 May 2017
D
David
3:06 AM

I balanced an outdoor aerial on a clothes dryer just to see if a freeview box I had bought off eBay was working or not. I was able only to get the strongest muxes like BBC1, BBC2, ITV, C4, C5 and the HD versions. I could not pick up the HD channels on UHF 33 and 34. The mux on 59 was non existent. I think the signal strength was only good enough to pick up about 80 channels.

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David's 20 posts GB flag
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