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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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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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
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:43 PM

Debbie: Just to add, that this request was based on the assumption that you are receiving Freeview from Pontop Pike and not the more local (6 miles away) Fenham transmitters, ITV3 being on mux Ch25 from Fenham, the mux transmitter channel involved being indicated on the same screen as the signal level.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Thursday, 10 January 2013
I
Inkfinger
5:53 AM
Durham

We have a Samsung TV that has lost ITV3 etc. Other freeview gear in the house unaffected and showing strong signal. Aerial definitely pointed at Pontop Pike, we're just a few miles away at dh7 0nb.

link to this comment
Inkfinger's 1 post GB flag
Inkfinger's: ...
G
Graham Francis
9:40 AM
Newcastle Upon Tyne

NE16 6BS

Pleased it's not just me having problems with Channel 50!!
My Panasonic PVR works OK, so is it just TVs that are affected?
Could Panasonic have issued a software update that has caused the problem?
If the problem was at Pontop Pike then surely all makes of TV would be affected.

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Graham Francis's 3 posts GB flag
Graham's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:31 PM

Another report of the same issue here:

QVC | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:36 PM

Graham Francis: Not necessarily so on both counts, as it all depends on the sensitivity of the TV's or boxes tuner, because if a fault develops on a transmitter causing a power output drop and yet its signal can still be viewed on one receiver but not the other, then this in most cases this is simply through the receiver that's still working either having a more sensitive tuner which overcomes the signal level cut off threshold, or alternatively it can be caused by the working device having a direct feed from the aerial whereas the other device doesn't, this usually by its aerial feed being daisy chained through another device which in most cases reduces the signal level.

I do realise that Panasonics have been mentioned more than any other brands, but software updates are generally dedicated to a particular range of chassis and doesn't blanket cover all models even within the same brand name, and so although I could possibly be proven wrong! but I don't feel that its connected in any way to software updates, that is unless everyone is using the same model of Panasonics.

But though re: my 9.37pm yesterdays posting to Debbie which can be seen above but a few postings back, you should also try this as the two mux channels mentioned are technically identical to each other which makes them ideal for comparison level checks.

You could also try the test on Pick TV(11) as mux Ch59 used by that programme is equally identical to the other two, although mux transmitters, even of identical power output, are very seldom ever received at the same levels through a multitude of factors involved.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
D
Dave
2:22 PM

Regarding the issue of Pontop Pike Ch50 being missing (on Panasonic TVs??).
As of 1400 today (Thurs), someone seems to have undone whatever they did to cause it; the problem seems to be resolved, missing stations are again available.
I assume anyone who did a full reset/rescan to try to resolve it will have lost the stations from their program guides and will now have to rescan Ch50 to get them back.
Dave (not Dave Lindsay!).

link to this comment
Dave's 4 posts GB flag
R
ron
2:56 PM

Thanks for that dave, just done a manual scan on channel 50 and all stations are back, wonder what caused it in the first place, we shall probably never know!.

link to this comment
ron's 2 posts GB flag
P
Peter Jackson
3:55 PM

Yes my Panny and Sony HDR are both now getting Dave ja vu etc.
Thanks to whoever

link to this comment
Peter Jackson's 2 posts GB flag
G
Graham Francis
4:59 PM

Just done manual scan on Channel 50, and everything is now OK.
Do you think we will ever find out what happened?

link to this comment
Graham Francis's 3 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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