Many thanks. The relative strengths of the different MUXs were all over the place this morning. Although strangely the BBC MUX which had the lowest sig strength (2% on TV) wasn't one of the ones that was breaking up, and had good signal ! The MUX with ITV/CH4, etc had a much stronger sig strength (21%) but just displayed random coloured pixelated blocks and poor sig quality. Cramlington NE23. It seems strange that so many major UK DTV transmitters are all marked for Work in the week commencing 17/02/2025. Arqiva must have a lot of engineers that are keen to climb towers in February weather !!!

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Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) Full Freeview transmitter
Saturday 22 February 2025 11:56AM

Hi Chris. Thanks for all your tips. I've visually inspected the from ground level. It's a mounted log-periodic and it's still pointing on the correct bearing for , and doesn't appear to have sustained any obvious damage. There's a -mounted that splits the TV to bedroom, lounge and kitchen TVs. The LG TVs in the bedroom and lounge currently can't receive anything other than the BBC on MUX which display fine, everything else is 100% pixelated or shows as channel unavailable on these sets. The strange thing is that the cheap Polaroid brand telly in the kitchen is showing ITV, CH4, E4, etc on MUX , with only occasional glitches every few seconds! Everything was perfectly fine a couple of weeks ago, and nobody has been in the loft or messed with the antenna outside.

It's interesting that you mention the & clearance issue. About 2 or 3 years ago we started getting intermittent TVI (severe pixelation and muted sound) on the BBC channels. This started about a month after a new popped up half a mile from our home and *directly* in line of sight to Pontop Pike. Sig strength was always up around 85%, and 95% but would momentarily drop to 1% or 2% when glitching. Sometimes you could go weeks without a problem and then it would happen every night. There was usually an engineer with hi-vis jacket on sticking his head inside the cabinet at the base of the mobile tower on the mornings right after we got horrendous TVI !!! Eventually realised it was . Spoke to bloke at "Clear at 800" on the phone and he sent a filter out. It did nothing after the loft amplifier-splitter, but cured the problem completely when I climbed into the loft and put it between the antenna download and the amplifier. So, yes, we have had our fair share of problems with the government's ridiculous idea to sell off part of the UHF TV band, as have others in this area! Nobody received cards through the post about this.

PP is 18 miles SSW of us over the brow of the hill in Cramlington, so we don't get a very strong signal to start with where we live. Putting a powerful local source of interference half a mile from us on exactly the same bearing as PP hasn't helped, but don't have much elevation to get a decent signal from 31 miles to the north either (>.<)

I remember seeing European analogue TV like ZDF, TV2, etc. a couple of times in the summer via tropo scatter as a teenager. On one occasion was good enough signal to get teletext coming through! Even got some Swedish channels... Never anything interesting to watch though! ;-)))

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Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) Full Freeview transmitter
Monday 24 February 2025 1:29PM

Spoke to bloke from Restore TV on the phone this morning and told him everything. They had a record of my call to "at 800" about TVI back in Dec 2022 and said that the filter they sent out in 2022 was actually a "" () low-pass filter and that it is identical to what they send out these days. They don't have anything better to send me.

As of this morning only the MUX with BBC SD and (COM5) Sky Mix, etc. yield any on all sets in the house, and they don't seem to glitch at all. All the other MUXs with ITV, CH4, E4, etc don't even attempt to show any picture now, just shows "". In the service menu C39 MUX shows 99% all the time and a stable sig strength. C34 shows about 90% quality but looks stable. The others show wildly fluctuating sig strengths and only 1 or 2% quality. No picture or sound at all. (None of out TVs are DVB-T2 compatible.)

The guy from Restore TV suggested I climb up in the and check for water ingress, etc. It's hard to get to the distribution at my age so when I'm up there I will do your checks bypassing the amp and checking each port and downlead to the rooms one at a time, etc. If that doesn't identify the cause they're going to send an Engineer out in a week's time. That's if if it hasn't resolved naturally. How long does Tx work usually persist? He also stated that they haven't had any calls from anyone else in my area which makes me think it could be a problem with my kit.

Incidentally what do you think of my chances of getting a decent signal from at Fern Avenue NE23 3GL, if I spun the aerial round to point North? And if I get a new it would be Group K now for PP and Chatton?

Many thanks in advance. Really appreciate it.

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Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) Full Freeview transmitter
Friday 21 March 2025 10:45AM

All are gone now! Most MUXs show "", and the previously remaining BBC MUX is now pixelated and breaking up beyond unwatchability.

I finally managed to climb up into the to check the cables and distribution ... The downlead from the outdoor and it's Belling- connecter look shiny, dry and corrosion free. This was plugged into a " - CH48" lowpass filter from "Clear at 800", and then into the UHF input on an 8-channel distribution amplifier. The distribution amp was warm, and the red LED was lit. The distribution amplifier was dry and free of any visible damage/corrosion. As you suspected all the connections are Belling-Lee plugs into the sockets on the amp, so I need a Belling-Lee coaxial coupler to bypass it. There's five coax cables leaving the amp to various sockets around the house, (only 3 actual TVs.) I unplugged/re-plugged all the BL connectors several times. The coax to the nearest bedroom has a dodgy join in it where it looks like the was a couple of feet short. They've just laid two coax cables side by side and twisted the cores together and the screens together then wrapped the whole mess with insulating tape to cover their sins!

I'm going to buy a coax coupler to do your recommended tests bypassing the amp, with the amp switched off to eliminate possible oscillation/. I'm planning to fix the shoddy cable join with a properly fitted Belling-Lee plug/socket. And I'm also going to make up a 5m cable with some decent 75R coax that I can just drop down the loft hatch and patch the antenna directly to the nearest TV below to see what result that gives.

Since it's such a pain to get into the loft I'm kind of temped to buy a replacement distribution amplifier and just fit it anyway. Would you recommend getting one with F connectors or Belling Lee? I personally think Belling Lee connectors are the work of the devil, and after spotting one dodgy cable join I'm inclined to check everything. I'd be happy to chop off the BL plugs and fit F-connectors. Does this sound reasonable? Any other suggestions for my next climb!?

Thanks in advance,

-Richie,

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Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) Full Freeview transmitter
Tuesday 1 April 2025 10:44PM

Switching off and bypassing the distribution by connecting the outdoor straight through to the nearest TV in the bedroom reduced the last remaining heavily pixelated MUX to a stubborn "". However, I tried a new Labgear 20-element Group-K Yagi plugged directly into the bedroom TV, and it brought in all MUXs with around 45% sig strength and 97% just held at head height.

The new Yagi is now resting on the lagging in the with the correct polarisation &bearing, going through the "Restore TV" 4G/ filter, and into the distribution amplifier. Now getting 79% sig strength on all MUXs and all TVs with 100% sig quality and no pixilation! I'm tempted just to get a loft-mount bracket and let the aerial enjoy the relative shelter of the loft. I can get the defective external Log Periodic taken down at a later date before the starts letting in water!

I suspect the external antenna has been gradually degrading for some time. And it seems that either I'm not in as bad a area as I thought, or DTV is more tolerant of a weak signal than I thought! I really didn't expect the antenna to work indoors, especially with PP still shown as under Work.

Thanks so much for all your and advice!

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Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) Full Freeview transmitter
Tuesday 1 April 2025 11:34PM

I actually just tuned in (local MUX) now as we couldn't get that previously, and it's showing 55% strength and 100% . I know the ERP is lower, but looks okay today (dry).

I was wondering how much it might fluctuate with time-of-day and adverse weather. Good advice! - I'll keep an eye on the stats. You usually don't have to wait very long for a decent downpour to come along here in the North East. I can get the a couple of feet higher up on a bracket if it ends up living inside, or do you think it's good to keep it a few feet away from the felt/tiles?

I don't mind paying someone to put the new antenna up outside, but a part of me is reluctant just in case the distribution then gets overloaded by the less than half a mile away and on exactly the same bearing!

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