Full Freeview on the Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 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 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 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.
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 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C32 | SDN | ||||||||
| C33 | com7 | ||||||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C35 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C39 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C42 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C45 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C49tv_off | BBCB | ||||||||
| C50tv_off | SDN | ||||||||
| C54tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | D3+4 | |||||
| C55tv_off | ArqB | com7tv_off | |||||||
| C56tv_off | LNE | ||||||||
| C58tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCA | |||||
| C59tv_off | ArqA | ||||||||
| C61 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ||||||
| C64 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 TeesWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Pontop Pike transmitter area
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Tuesday, 26 November 2019
A
Alan Tye4:37 PM
Chris.SE:
Looks like it was just a one-off, been ok ever since
Thanks.
Alan.
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Wednesday, 4 December 2019
B
Barbara Magraw10:28 AM
I have a YouView Box which is working OK, I can get all channels but my TV has "No signal". I have gone through the setup several times but cannot figure out how to rectify the problem. Can you help?
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C
Chris.SE1:20 PM
Barbara Magraw:
It's always possible your TV tuner is not as sensitive as your YouView box so in case there are any connection or signal problems check all you coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc. (try swapping them around if you have more than one), unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. If you can see what signal strengths and quality you are getting for the multiplexes shown in the tuning section, this might indicate potential issues with your aerial or downlead. Also check that your downlead looks undamaged and that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction.
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.
Having done that, unplug the aerial from the TV and do an automatic retune. This should clear memory of all previous tuning as no channels will be found. Plug the aerial back in and repeat the tuning process.
Hopefully this will restore all your channels. If you still have problems, we need a full postcode to see what predicted reception is like at your location.
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Monday, 9 December 2019
D
David Landers7:13 PM
We've had problems ever since the Pontop Pike frequency changeover on November 13th. Despite regular retunes (auto and manual) we lost most Freeview programmes on both the TV and the Humax box. (With poor reception on some of those we still had, such as BBC1.) Then a retune on the night of 26th/27th brought them all back - for about 48 hours...
Freeview have just sent out two friendly engineers who decided that the mast-head amplifier was faulty (our fairly recent wide-band roof aerial is okay, apparently). The new amplifier brought back several programmes, but we're still missing a few, such as Blaze and Horror - wanted for old Star Trek episodes!
It seems that we're not getting one multiplex. How is this possible when signal strength on others is reported as high? Is FreeSat the answer? Or are 'peripheral' Freeview channels such as these available via broadband on a Fire Stick type plug-in device?
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Tuesday, 10 December 2019
C
Chris.SE3:20 AM
David Landers:
As indicated immediately above the comment box, and in the post before yours (and many others around these boards), a full postcode is needed to see what the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker is showing for predicted reception at your location. It is possible that reception of one (or more) multiplex(es) can be poorer than others. This can be very often due to interference by other transmitter signals and might vary with weather conditions, or lower transmitter power on some.
As you've had some engineers attend recently, the presumption would be that your installation is ok.
It's not possible to advise on the best possible solutions to your problem without that prediction information and some further information about channels you aren't getting.
See Channel listings | Freeview you'll note that both Blaze and Horror are on the SDN multiplex. Are you getting any of the other channels on the SDN multiplex or are they definitely all missing?
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Friday, 13 December 2019
D
David Landers8:19 PM
Morpeth
Chris.SE:
Thanks, Chris.
Postcode is NE65 8AR. Signal strength is generally held to be poor at this location and we have always needed an amplifier (even back in analogue days). However; prior to the November 13th frequency changes, we had enjoyed a pretty full range of Freeview channels with decent reception. Then we got the problems that I mentioned.
The position right now is that the lost channels have suddenly come back again! This was some time after the second engineers' visit when they fitted the new mast-head amp. As I said in my previous post, that had pulled back all(?) channels apart from the one multiplex. In answer to your question, as far as I know, all channels on that one (SDN) were missing.
But then yet another retune, and suddenly there they are... Since nothing has changed at our end in-between, I assume it must be something happening at the transmitter, or weather conditions.
Incidentally, our Humax box always seems to pick up more channels than the TV - perhaps a difference in their sensitivity and/or power?
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David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 14 December 2019
C
Chris.SE8:59 AM
David Landers:
Oh dear, you are undoubtedly lucky that you get any Freeview reception and that Freeview sent out some engineers as neither they nor the BBC predict that your location is within any normal coverage. I had to resort to Terrain mapping to see you are in an area with very variable terrain and have a large hill between you and the transmitter.
I would have to draw the same conclusion that it was likely to have been something at the transmitter, because unless faults are persistent (and/or affecting BBC channels) finding any reports from Freeview/Arqiva on transmitter problems is something I've not found to be reliable!
At least you have your reception back, and Humax boxes do have a good reputation in general for sensitivity. If in the future you find things being more unreliable, possibly in the main due to weather conditions in the summer, then it looks as though the only alternative option might be to consider Freesat. A lot of modern TVs have in-built satellite tuners so only need the addition of a dish and LNB. I suppose that there could be a possibility that if there are enough of you in the area with similar problems, you could all consider the possibility of having a "self-help" relay, but then you have to find a location where you could get reliable reception and permission to install such a relay.
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Friday, 16 October 2020
P
Phil5:55 PM
Our BBC channels have been very pixelated for the last few weeks. We have a two storey house with the aerial on the chimney stack. ITV and Channel 4 are fine.
There are no reports of any issues on Pontop Pike but something must have chnaged recently. Other people in the area have noticed this too (I asked a local Facebook group).
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Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 17 October 2020
C
Chris.SE12:15 AM
Phil:
Were you still having these problems earlier THIS week?
Several weeks ago it could have been most likely down to adverse weather conditions - There had been some "Tropospheric Ducting" see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation.
It can be quite variable, come and go within seconds, minutes or hours. It doesn't necessarily affect all multiplexes at the same time or at all and not everyone will be affected, it will depend on location. At times it can wipe out your reception. People in different parts of the UK and Europe had been experiencing problems.
These conditions cleared and there shouldn't have been any problems at the beginning of this week for example, however there is some more predicted over the next couple of days which may or may not have any effect.
Now if you previously retuned when you had no signal or pictures were badly pixellated, then this can clear correct tuning (advice is not to retune in such conditions otherwise you'll probably have to repeat a retune, maybe several times when signals are normal). When such interference conditions are present you may even get tuned to the wrong transmitter (eg. Fenham for you) which won't provide reliable signals with the wrong aerial polarisation and not pointing in the correct direction.
Check in your TV's tuning section that you are tuned to the correct UHF channels for Pontop Pike.
In the multiplex order PSBs1-3, COMs4-7, Local they are C39, C42, C45, C32, C34, C35, C55, C33
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Sunday, 18 October 2020
B
Bernard 12:46 AM
Hello, I have been unable to receive BBC News HD since about March this year. I have tried retuning automatically and manually many times over during the the last six months but there is no signal at all. I am receiving all the other stations except the ones on Com 7. My transmitter is Pontop Pyke in County Durham. According to this website: Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy it seems Com7 has Expired to make space for 5G on the network. I understand atmospheric conditions can have an effect as you imply but my other stations/channels are not affected. I hope you can provide an explanation for this? Will Com 7 be broadcasting again on Freeview because I miss BBC News HD very much as I am now using the lower definition BBC News instead. Kind regards.
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