menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

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
_______

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
Sunday, 17 November 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:36 PM

KarlR:

If your provide a full postcode we can look at the predicted reception. Freeview's advice isn't always the most helpful unfortunately, however, if another aerial was needed then it is the landlord's responsibility.
Which 13 channels are you getting?

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
K
KarlR
1:27 PM
Newcastle Upon Tyne

Chris.SE

NE6 5LU - no reported issues for this area. Oddly, we've had between 13, 42 and 88 channels showing after a retune..

link to this comment
KarlR's 4 posts GB flag
KarlR's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:57 PM

KarlR:

For your postcode you shouldn't have any problem getting all the available multiplexes from Pontop Pike. I'd also be surprised that considering you're only about 18km from the mast that you wouldn't get most, if not all the multiplexes even on quite an old C/D group aerial.
The issue might be that you can in fact receive several transmitters at your location, and in particular the Fenham transmitter which is only 6km away BUT is much lower power, doesn't have COMs 7&8 and requires an aerial that's vertical polarised. A lot of aerials aren't that good at rejecting cross-polarisation signals that are moderately close.

It depends on how your set is tuning, because the Fenham UHF channels are lower in the band than Pontop Pike, so it is likely it will find these before Pontop Pike's channels so you may well find Pontop Pike's in the 800's in your programme lists.

The "trick" here will be to do a manual tune, but do it as follows. Unplug the aerial and do a full automatic tune. This should clear memory of all previous tuning as no channels will be found.
Plug the aerial back in, and in your Tuning section, find the Manual Tuning option.
Tune the following UHF channels for Pontop Pike - 39, 42, 32, 34, 35 for the SD channels, if you have HD 45, 55, 56.

Let us know how you get on.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
K
KarlR
7:50 PM
Newcastle Upon Tyne

Chris.SE:

Thanks for the advice, I'll have to try this with a different box as the YouView box we have doesn't allow for manual tuning.

link to this comment
KarlR's 4 posts GB flag
KarlR's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:20 PM

KarlR:

Oh dear. I had heard that about Youview boxes, not familiar with them. I'd complain to your service provider that a frimware update is needed to allow this.
Are you finding any channels (LCNs) in the 800's? Does the box have a program manager that would allow you to move/renumber them?

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
I
Ian Carrick
9:00 PM

Hi,

I use something called DVBLink on a computer which distributes TV from Freeview. Since the latest Pontop Pike changes it fails to retune all but 53 channels out of 166. A rescan does not find the missing ones like BBC.

I am trying with the supplier of DVBLInk but not getting anywhere. My theory is that the transponders are out of date. Just wondering if I list them here would you be able to work out what they mean and if they need to change. Any advice would be fantastic.

Here is that list of transponders. 3,4,5,8 and 9 fail to tune.

1=570000,V,6900
2=578000,V,6900
3=698000,V,6900
4=706000,V,6900
5=738000,V,6900
6=746000,V,6900
7=754000,V,6900
8=770000,V,6900
9=778000,V,6900

_______________

1,2, 6 and 7 successfully re-tune with these channels:

1:
Tyne & Wear TV
Tiny Pop
Sony Movies +1
Sony Channel
Sony Movies Christmas

2:
Sky News
Pick
Challenge
Dave
E4+1
ADULT smileTV3
Film4+1
talkSPORT
RNIB Connect
Classic FM
LBC
Food Network
TJC
TBN UK
Really
Quest Red
QUEST+1
NOW 90s
Sony Movies
ADULT Xpanded TV
Together TV
Create & Craft
Gems TV
697

6:
BBC NEWS HD
Channel 4+1 HD
4seven HD
Jewellery Maker
Trans World Radio
More4+1
RT HD
CBS Reality +1
5USA+1
Quest Red+1
Pick+1
Smithsonian Channel

7:
QVC HD
QVC Beauty HD
CBeebies HD
BBC FOUR HD
QUEST HD
5STAR+1
FreeSports
Forces TV
PBS America
Together TV
NOW 80s
Together TV+1

link to this comment
Ian Carrick's 2 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:39 PM

Ian Carrick:

Yes those transponders would be out of date as the first numbers appear to be the UHF Channel in kHz.
What the V,6900 mean I've no idea, nor have I any idea how to edit the entries.
The numbers you want for each are as follows -
618000, 642000, 666000, 562000, 578000, 586000, 746000, 754000, 570000
Those are in the order PSBs 1-3, COMs 4-8, Local.
I don't know if this DVBLink requires them in increasing number value of if that order will do.
FYI, the UHF channels in the same order are 39, 42, 45, 32, 34, 35, 55, 56, 33.

I assume you know of the website dvblogic.com - Tvmosaic player/">dvblogic.com - Player but on the homepage dvblogic.com - Tvmosaic they say it's being replaced. Also found this DvbLink TV Server, Version 6, on Synology NAS - YouTube don't know if it'll help with any setup, didn't watch more than a few seconds.


link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:47 PM

KarlR:

According to the Youview Support page you're supposed to be able to choose the transmitter when you receive more than one, also during setup it asks for a postcode. I'd guess that a postcode for the wrong region will confuse it, whether you can reset it by turning it off and on (holding the on/off button on the front for 8 seconds) I don't know.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Monday, 18 November 2019
K
KarlR
8:18 AM
Newcastle Upon Tyne

Chris.SE

Thanks for your tips. I've taken the YouView box out of the equation and done a manual retune with the TV only - all SD channels appear to be back, so I'll just replace the YouView box with an HD recorder, I'm leaving TalkTalk anyway so they can have their useless tech back.

link to this comment
KarlR's 4 posts GB flag
KarlR's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
John jackson
12:28 PM

Since changes I now have no signal? To the TV ? So I can't retune !
Will I need to change direction of my aerial?

link to this comment
John jackson's 1 post GB flag
Select more comments

Your comment please
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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.








Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.