Full Freeview on the Pontypool (Torfaen, Wales) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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51.685,-3.037 or 51°41'7"N 3°2'14"W

NP4 5XJ

The symbol shows the location of the Pontypool (Torfaen, Wales) transmitter which serves 19,000 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 Pontypool (Torfaen, Wales) mast?

Pontypool transmitter - Pontypool transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 27/11/2023 Screen may go black on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Pontypool 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	V max	C23+ (490.2MHz)	294m	DTG-	50W
	1 BBC One (SD) Wales, 2 BBC Two Wales, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 14 others
PSB2 D3+4	V max	C26+ (514.2MHz)	294m	DTG-	50W
	5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Wales),
PSB3 BBCB	V max	C29+ (538.2MHz)	294m	DTG-	50W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Wales, 102 BBC Two HD Wales, 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 110 Channel 4 HD (Wales), 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	V max	C25- (505.8MHz)	294m	DTG-8	50W
	E4 (Wales), 20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 34 others
COM5 ArqA	V max	C22- (481.8MHz)	294m	DTG-8	50W
	Smithsonian Channel, 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 Christmas, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	V max	C28- (529.8MHz)	294m	DTG-8	50W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! christmas mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 20 others

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

The Pontypool (Torfaen, Wales) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .

If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Pontypool transmitter?

BBC Wales Today 1.2m homes 4.7%
from Cardiff CF5 2YQ, 25km southwest (214°)
to BBC Wales region - 206 masts.

ITV Cymru Wales 1.2m homes 4.7%
from Cardiff CF5 6XJ, 30km southwest (215°)
to ITV Wales region - 206 masts.

How will the Pontypool (Torfaen, Wales) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2010	2010-13	29 Jun 2019
	A K T	A K T	A K T	A K T	A K T
C21	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves
C22				-ArqA	ArqA
C23				+BBCA	BBCA
C24	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves
C25				-SDN	SDN
C26				+D3+4	D3+4
C27	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves
C28				-ArqB	ArqB
C29				+BBCB	BBCB
C31	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves

_{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 3 Mar 10 and 31 Mar 10.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4	250W
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 50W
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B	(-11dB) 20W
Mux C, Mux D	(-14dB) 10W

Local transmitter maps

PONTYPOOL Freeview PONTYPOOL DAB PONTYPOOL AM/FM Wenvoe TV region BBC Wales Wales

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Wenvoe transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968	Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Harlech Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Pontypool 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.