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 24/02/2025 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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Sunday, 23 February 2025
C
Chris.SE2:55 AM
Richie:
Hi Richie, yes any filter should go before an amp otherwise you are just amplifying the interference as well! I'd get onto Restore TV and tell them you've now been getting interference issues for weeks and there's a 5G mast on the line-of-sight to Pontop Pike (they should know that anyway from their database) and with Pontop Pike having Planned Engineering, you are struggling to receive anything, so you'd like one of the free filters.
These newer filters will clobber anything in the 700MHz band and above (ie. 800MHz) basically anything above C48, so you shouldn't need both.
Have a look at the coax plug on the end of the aerial lead and check for any corrosion or water, if there's any this could indicate water getting into either the aerial connection or the coax being damaged somewhere.
Also worth trying to check there's no issue with the amp/splitter.
Check the signal strength of several of the muxes on the set with the shortest cable run from the splitter (bedroom perhaps?) then unplug all the others from the splitter and try the bedroom one in each outlet and see if there's any improvement in the figures.
Also, unplug the amp from the mains/switch it off (in case it's gone unstable and generating interference) and couple the aerial output direct to the short cable run (you'd probably need a coax coupler), if there's any significant improvement, the amp/splitter could be faulty.
Then try coupling the aerial output to your main TV feed and see what results you get.
Tell us how you get on.
PS. It wasn't "the government's ridiculous idea to sell off part of the UHF TV band" it was international agreements that affected the whole of Europe, so all those with broadcast DTV in these bands has been affected.
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Monday, 24 February 2025
R
Richie1:29 PM
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 "C48" (700MHz) 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 C39 MUX with BBC SD channels and C34 (COM5) Sky Mix, etc. yield any picture 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 "No signal". In the service menu C39 MUX shows 99% quality 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 loft and check for water ingress, etc. It's hard to get to the distribution amplifier at my age so when I'm up there I will do your checks bypassing the amp and checking each output 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 Engineering 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 Chatton at Fern Avenue NE23 3GL, if I spun the aerial round to point North? And if I get a new antenna it would be Group K now for PP and Chatton?
Many thanks in advance. Really appreciate it.
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C
Chris.SE3:33 PM
Richie :
For your postcode, Chatton is predicted to be worse. PP is predicted to be the best!
They never say how long the engineering work will go on, or what it is!! Many transmitters have had work on and off for months!
If it doesn't resolve itself, I'd take them up on the offer of sending an engineer because they will do whatever is necessary, they have all the kit for testing and it's all free (normally) If say your distribution amp needed replacing they may charge for that, I don't know.
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