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 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering 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, 18 January 2022
C
Chris.SE1:45 AM
Brian Richardson:
The aerial may be a wideband then (black plugs in the boom - but black has known to be used in Grouped aerials!), but even so, the gain of all these aerials drop off on the lower channels only log periodics have a flattish response.
It does seem that all your coax is OK - good news, and the signals strengths seem pretty consistent and although there's a bit of variation in the errors, it's the same multiplexes.
Is the amp gain currently up full? If so, out of curiosity turn it down a little bit and see what is happening to the strength and errors on all the multiplexes. Likewise if it's not up full, turn it up a bit and see what happens - note all the figures.
One of the reasons I suggested coupling the aerial direct to your main TV coax to check the figures, is that too much signal can also produce problems. Gain figures can appear to go down and errors ultimately increase.
As your booster/spiltter has variable gain, the results from changing the setting are going to be interesting.
There's some info about 'tropo' in posts I made a few weeks ago that'll be worth repeating.
Despite the incorrect spelling, this link does work - simple technical explanation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rec….jpg
Do remember they are all general propagation predictions and it doesn't mean that one WILL be affected, sometimes just bands II & III may be affected and not IV & V, sometimes the other way around, sometime all or none! The predicted areas don't necessarily need to be directly overhead, they can be immediately adjacent.
Tropospheric Ducting Forecast for VHF & UHF Radio & TV is one of the ones I refer to,
also Europe | Tropospheric Propagation Forecast
It's worth keeping an eye on Problems with Freeview reception? | Help receiving TV and radio as the BBC sometimes put a Works and Warnings note up (there's been one but it will usually disappear when conditions change).
I do look at Updates and alerts | Freeview for other things but they're often unreliable for this sort of thing (always after the event, so to speak, as with some other things they put there!).
But one of the main indicators as to whether you are suffering interference at a given time, is the error figures (assuming that they are zero or constant and very low when there's no tropo).
Current conditions may ease on Wednesday but could return again towards the weekend!
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Thursday, 20 January 2022
B
Brian Richardson1:14 PM
Chris.SE: Hi, tested amp settings on 18th Jan, first set of data was without amp connected, normal aerial, next with amp connected and set at minimum gain, and finally amp connected and set at higest gain. Here are the readings:
Without amp
PSB1 - strength 45, bit error varying 1 to 58
PSB2 - strength 55, bit error 0
PSB3 - strength 88, bit error 920
Com 4 - strength 40, bit error varying 16 to 65
Com 5 - strength 0, bit error 2000
Com 6 - strength 0, bit error 2000
Com 7 - strength 68, bit error 2000
Amp connected and set to lowest gain
PSB1 - strength 60, bit error 0
PSB2 - strength 70, bit error 0
PSB3 - strength 96, bit error 420
Com 4 - strength 50, bit error 0
Com 5 - strength 0, bit error 2000
Com 6 - strength 0, bit error 2000
Com 7 - strength 88, bit error varying 820 to 1000
Amp connected and set to highest gain
PSB1 - strength 80, bit error 0
PSB2 - strength 80, bit error 0
PSB3 - strength 96, bit error varying 280 to 380
Com 4 - strength 80, bit error 0
Com 5 - strength 45, bit error 0
Com 6 - strength 40, bit error 2000 (unwatchable, pixelation no sound)
Com 7 - strength 96, bit error 340
I am checking signal and bit error twice a day so will look out for changes this weekend and post results. At the moment the only multiplex with reception problems is Com 6 with bad pixelation and no sound. Latest readings I took on Com 6 this morning are: Signal strength - 40, bit error - 2000.
Thanks for info re tropo, will check out websites you provided for me.
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Friday, 21 January 2022
C
Chris.SE8:06 AM
Brian Richardson:
Thanks for those figures. Your predicted reception shows PSB3 as being the best which appears as though it's showing in those figures but the fact that it's showing as the same strength at minimum gain and maximum gain suggests that the set won't show a higher figure. Can't draw any conclusions as to whether it's too much signal at this point, or whether the strength is being affected by any tropo and with Planned Engineering going on, how that may be affecting the other figures, especially the COMs is impossible to say. When that engineering is complete we'll have a better idea. I'm still suspicious about the possibility of it being a Group C/D aerial.
Keep a note of any figures if there's any significant differences.
I don't suppose that there's any large trees (or other large buildings etc.) very close by on the aerial line of sight to the transmitter?
One other point, an apology as I said that COMs4-6 were half the transmitted power of the PSBs - that was according to figures here, whereas DUK/Freeview figures show them as the same power, not that I would expect that to make any significant difference as you are not that far from the transmitter.
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Brian Richardson5:19 PM
Chris.SE: Will continue to check figures and report back with figures when there is a change. Found a reference on line on a forum that suggested unplugging the aerial waiting a second then plugging it back was worth a try. Strange but yesterday on Com 5 (Sky News) I was getting some sound stammering at intervals so gave it a try and it appeared to work. Stammering stopped and it was ok for about 15mins when it happened again so unplugged and plugged back it and it worked again. Could have been coincidence but very odd to me, just thought i would mention it. Thanks again for your help Steve, at least I have now got a handle on the problem. Have had a week of quite good reception apart from Com 6.
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Saturday, 22 January 2022
C
Chris.SE1:28 AM
Brian Richardson:
Hmm. I would imagine that just unplugging the aerial for a few seconds and reinserting it, is simply causing the set AGC to change and taking several minutes to settle down again.
Try tweaking the booster/splitter gain down a fraction and see what it does to ALL the figures.
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Brian Richardson3:46 PM
Chris.SE: Ok will try tweaking the booster down a bit over the weekend and post readings. Today however surprise readings on Com6. After a week of no reception, my daily check at 1100 hrs today found that it is back. Readings on Com 6 for this week as follows:
Com6
Mon 17th 1000hrs - Strength 40, bit error 23 - 213 (unwatchable pixelation etc)
Tues 18th 1300hrs - Strength 40, bit error 2000 (no reception)
Wed 19th 1300hrs - Strength 40/45, bit error 2000 (no reception)
Thurs 20th 1200hrs - Strenth 40, bit error 2000 (no reception)
Frid 21st 1300hrs - Strength 31/37, bit error 2000 (no reception)
Sat 22nd 1000hrs - Strength 75/80, bit error 0 (good picture and sound)
Checked tropo and it does not appear to me to have changed dramatically over the last few days.
Full set of readings for today are as follows:
PSB1 - strength 85, bit error 0 (sig strength up a bit from 80)
PSB2 - strength 80, bit error 0 (unchanged)
PSB3 - strength 96, bit error varying 280 to 460 (unchanged)
Com 4 - strength 85, bit error 0 (sig strength up a bit from 75/80)
Com 5 - strength 75, bit error 0 (strength up from 40/55)
Com 6 - strength 75/80, bit error 0 (major change up from sig strength 40, bit error down from 2000 to 0)
Com 7 - strength 96, bit error 260/380 (strength and error about the same as previous readings)
??
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C
Chris.SE10:38 PM
Brian Richardson:
My interpretation of the tropo predictions at the time was that there might have been a slight cessation early afternoon maybe late morning) but returning during the evening. This does look as though this could be what you've seen BUT also those major improvements in the COM signal strengths suggest the Planned Engineering had something to do with it, and it's probably stopped for the weekend. Unfortunately it looks as though there'll be more next week, but that TBC.
Those latest figures are very good news, lets hope it's not a fluke of the weather.
Now, the other interesting thing is that it may indeed by a wideband aerial with those figures.
However, a significant observation is that the two muxes with the high errors are those with signal 96. So tweaking the gain down a touch may well improve things. It could be a bit of a trader-off between getting the errors down to something acceptable without losing too much signal elsewhere resulting in errors there.
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Wednesday, 26 January 2022
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Brian Richardson4:24 PM
Chris.SE: Data with amp gain tweak as follows:
Normal max gain readings
PSB1 - strength 80/85, bit error 0
PSB2 - strength 80/85, bit error 0
PSB3 - strength 96, bit error varying 280 to 400 (but good picture no sign of pixelation etc)
Com 4 - strength 85, bit error 0
Com 5 - strength 75, bit error 0
Com 6 - strength 70, bit error 0
Com 7 - strength 96, bit error varying between 280 and 400
Gain reduced to about half
PSB1 - strength 80, bit error 0
PSB2 - strength 80, bit error 0
PSB3 - strength 96, bit error varying 320 to 420 (but good picture no sign of pixelation etc)
Com 4 - strength 75, bit error 0
Com 5 - strength 60, bit error 0
Com 6 - strength 60, bit error 0
Com 7 - strength 96, bit error varying between 360 to 440
Reception was good over the weekend so decided to do a channel scan, low and behold up pops the local multiplex, never any sign of this in previous scans so things are looking good. I have had poor to average reception since moving in to the house last August but it looks to me as if the problem has been mainly at the transmission end rather than house set up, although I did add the amplifier so that is a difference. Very happy at the moment, and improvement seems to be stable touch wood!
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C
Chris.SE5:44 PM
Brian Richardson:
Too much gain can also be a bad thing. Depending on the response of that aerial you have (some aerial can have a very peaky response curve), it may still turn out to be a compromise with slightly lower gain to minimise the errors. See how things go on. Tropo still about but not always causing a problem.
Going forwards, you might want to consider a change of aerial (after COM7 closes). I'd probably go for a log periodic with a 700MHz filter (ie ch.21-48) they've got a pretty flat response.
Post back if you need more help/have any queries at any time.
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Brian Richardson11:33 PM
Chris.SE: Thank you very much for your help Chris. Aerial info noted, this will be a great when the time comes , will post back if any further issues. Cheers for now!
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