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.
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._______
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
|
|
Monday, 18 November 2019
S
StevensOnln12:27 PM
John jackson: The transmitter is still in the same place so the direction your aerial points to won't need to change unless you're trying to receive a different transmitter (or it has been moved by the wind). Most TVs have a retune option in the menu which should be accessible even if you have no signal on any channel (have you checked the manual?). If you give the Freeview Advice Line a call they should be able to talk you through manual tuning, or failing that send someone out who will fit a new wideband aerial if required (free of charge if you don't have satellite or cable).
| link to this comment |
N
Nigel7:30 PM
John jackson:
I had problems with my youview box did not want to pick up olivers mount Yorkshire TV weak signal as Bilsdale TT TV was very strong Shorted on TV by manual tune but was hard to tune You view box as would not even pick up Yorkshire channels as duplicates
| link to this comment |
C
Chris.SE7:47 PM
Nigel:
It was KarlR who was having the Youview box problem. Anyway, did you manage to get yours tuned to Bilsdale, if so how did you manage it, it could be useful info for others?
The Youview support pages imply you can choose the transmitter during tuning if you receive more than one, but it's unclear when in the process, also initially you enter your postcode. What it doesn't make clear is can you reset your postcode at anytime - does restarting the box by holding the button on the front for 8 seconds do a virtual reset?
| link to this comment |
Tuesday, 19 November 2019
N
Nigel8:05 PM
Chris.SE: It was the YTV from Olivers Mount that was the problem as they are weak as compared to Bilsdale Now got YTV but missing COM 7& 8 as these at only from Bilsdale
| link to this comment |
Friday, 22 November 2019
A
Alan Tye1:54 PM
Com78 National has now dropped signal twice, is this the transmitter or signal from the source.
Thanks
| link to this comment |
Saturday, 23 November 2019
C
Chris.SE12:06 AM
Alan Tye:
Pontop Pike is listed as having Planned Engineering with "Possible service interruptions" at present.
Over what period is it that the signal has dropped, just today, this week or longer?
If the problem is persisting please post back with a full postcode so we can check what Freeview is predicting for your reception of COMs 7&8.
| link to this comment |
Tuesday, 26 November 2019
A
Alan Tye4:37 PM
Chris.SE:
Looks like it was just a one-off, been ok ever since
Thanks.
Alan.
| link to this comment |
Wednesday, 4 December 2019
B
Barbara Magraw10:28 AM
I have a YouView Box which is working OK, I can get all channels but my TV has "No signal". I have gone through the setup several times but cannot figure out how to rectify the problem. Can you help?
| link to this comment |
C
Chris.SE1:20 PM
Barbara Magraw:
It's always possible your TV tuner is not as sensitive as your YouView box so in case there are any connection or signal problems check all you coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc. (try swapping them around if you have more than one), unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. If you can see what signal strengths and quality you are getting for the multiplexes shown in the tuning section, this might indicate potential issues with your aerial or downlead. Also check that your downlead looks undamaged and that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction.
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.
Having done that, unplug the aerial from the TV and do an automatic retune. This should clear memory of all previous tuning as no channels will be found. Plug the aerial back in and repeat the tuning process.
Hopefully this will restore all your channels. If you still have problems, we need a full postcode to see what predicted reception is like at your location.
| link to this comment |
Monday, 9 December 2019
D
David Landers7:13 PM
We've had problems ever since the Pontop Pike frequency changeover on November 13th. Despite regular retunes (auto and manual) we lost most Freeview programmes on both the TV and the Humax box. (With poor reception on some of those we still had, such as BBC1.) Then a retune on the night of 26th/27th brought them all back - for about 48 hours...
Freeview have just sent out two friendly engineers who decided that the mast-head amplifier was faulty (our fairly recent wide-band roof aerial is okay, apparently). The new amplifier brought back several programmes, but we're still missing a few, such as Blaze and Horror - wanted for old Star Trek episodes!
It seems that we're not getting one multiplex. How is this possible when signal strength on others is reported as high? Is FreeSat the answer? Or are 'peripheral' Freeview channels such as these available via broadband on a Fire Stick type plug-in device?
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please