Full Freeview on the Durris (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 57.000,-2.392 or 56°59'59"N 2°23'30"W |  | AB39 3TH |
The symbol shows the location of the Durris (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) transmitter which serves 180,000 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 Durris (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) mast?
Durris transmitter - Durris transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 02/12/2024 Screen may go black 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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Durris 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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Durris transmitter?
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 173km southwest (224°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
STV News 0.4m homes 1.5%
from Aberdeen AB12 3QH, 23km northeast (52°)
to STV North (Aberdeen) region - 76 masts.
Are there any self-help relays?
| Aberdeen (old Town) | Transposer | 2 km N city centre | 837 homes (dealer estimate) |
| Aberdeen-talisman | Transposer | 1 km SW city centre | 100 homes |
| Fyvie | Active deflector | 37 km NW Aberdeen | 10 homes Hotel |
| Glen Tanar | Active deflector | 11 km E Ballater | 13 homes |
| Glenlivet | Transposer | 15 km E Grantown-on- Spey | 70 homes School |
| Haughton House C/p | Transposer | 1 km N Aford Aberdeenshire | 1 homes 150 caravans |
| Oyne | Active deflector | 33 km NW Aberdeen | 11 homes |
| Strathdon A | Transposer | 60 km W Aberdeen | 25 homes |
| Strathdon B | Transposer | 25 homes | |
| Strathdon C | Transposer | ‘appreciable population' | |
| Strathdon D | Active deflector | ||
| Strathdon E | Active deflector | ||
| Strathdon F | Active deflector |
How will the Durris (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1961-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2010 | 2010-13 | 3 Oct 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | W | W | A K T | W T | ||||
| C9 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C22 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C23 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C25 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C26 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C28 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C29 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C30 | _local | ArqB | |||||||
| C32 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | com7 | |||||
| C35 | com8 | ||||||||
| C41 | _local | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_off | ||||||||
| C67 | C5waves | C5waves |
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 1 Sep 10 and 15 Sep 10.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500kW | |
| Analogue 5, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 100kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 50kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A* | (-14dB) 20kW | |
| com7, com8 | (-15.4dB) 14.5kW | |
| Mux B* | (-17dB) 10kW | |
| Mux C*, Mux D* | (-20dB) 5kW |
Local transmitter maps
Durris Freeview Durris TV region BBC Scotland STV North (Aberdeen micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Durris transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldTuesday, 14 August 2012
J
jb381:15 PM
Rowland: Not necessarily so, as although the three transmitters all radiate from the same mast and with very little difference in the height between radiation elements, the signal paths from the elements are not necessarily received in an orderly fashion with roughly the same strengths, this being for a variety of reasons such as deflections / obstructions etc, these variations in the levels received applying with reception from most multi-channel transmitting stations albeit not really being noticed by anyone unless they are of a higher magnitude triggering the necessity for some signal checks to be carried out.
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Tuesday, 4 September 2012
A
A Appleby11:48 AM
Ever since the switchover to digital we have had problems with freeview channels ie 11, 12 15 etc. I have spoken today to a BBC advisor who informs me this is because Surris is not receiving these chanels and all attempts to manually tune into another server has been hopeless. Can you please tell me why we cannot now receive these channels when they all worked perfectly well before the digital switch over. We do have an appropriate aerial.Our next door neighbour has the same problem but not the neighbours about half a mile away.
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Wednesday, 5 September 2012
K
KMJ,Derby11:28 AM
A Appleby: Without knowing where you are located, preferably by a postcode, it is not possible to give specific advice based on predicted reception in the area. However there is a general problem to the North of the Durris service area affecting the COM muxes. This began after switchover when the COM muxes from Durris changed frequencies to share those in use at Knock More for the PSB muxes. The problem was noticed particularly in the Huntly area and other locations where signals are present from both transmitters. In some cases within the overlap between the two transmitters it is necessary to use two aerials, reception of the PSB muxes from Durris combined with the COM muxes from Knock More giving a full service. In cases where the Knock More signal is at too low a level to give reliable reception, but strong enough to interfere with reception from Durris the only option is to try to find a position for the aerial where there is a null for the unwanted Knock More signal. If this is the problem in your area it is quite possible that at half a mile away trees, hills or some other obstructions give screening from the interference.
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Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Jim Bell
7:49 PM
Insch
7:49 PM
Insch
Recently (on Sat 3rd Dec I think) the signal strength when watching ITV3 degraded with the picture on the screen becoming distorted and then gradually disappeared altogether with the message "no signal" being displayed.
My antenna is positioned to receive our signal from the Durris transmitter.
The "no signal" situation still prevails as at this date despite the transmitter showing no problem.
Although we had problems receiving this channel during the early stages of digital switchover, we have been receiving a good signal for this channel for over 9 months with no significant drop-off.
Can anyone explain what has changed (I am fairly sure that the problem is signal strength because that was the problem that we had during switchover).
Jim Bell
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Jim's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb389:09 PM
Jim Bell: Various forms of engineering work is presently being carried out at the station with periods of weak signals being unavoidably necessary, and so there really inst anything that can be done about the situation except to wait as the problem you are experiencing will be resolved in due course.
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Saturday, 16 February 2013
S
s Dalgleish10:59 AM
Aberdeen
Hi
I have been having problems receiving all the BBC channels intermittently for about the past month - at times they all work perfectly, other times they have lots of little squares and at other times it just states no signal and i have no bbc channelsat all even though all the other channels on my tv work perfectly.
This morning we had great bbc channels and then around 10.30 we went to no signal again for no reason. Could you let me know if there is work being carried out this weekend on the transmitter or if there is perhaps a problem with signal strength in my area or if i may need an ariel engineer to try and look at the ariel on the roof instead. Post code is AB15 4UQ.
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s's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 27 March 2013
W
Wendy5:33 PM
Hi
I am in Strichen Aberdeenshire and am suddenly only able to receive BBC channels (all good picture quality.. all other channels have been off since 25 march. with retuning sometimes able to find some channels but the TV not able to display them due to weak signal and pixilation or no signal message. Anyone got an idea what is happening. Aerial is on roof and seems undamaged.
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Thursday, 4 April 2013
M
Manny9:27 AM
Fraserburgh
hello
I am also in strichen and cannot receive any stations on channels DVB-T 26 or DVB-T 29, they return occasionally and work perfectly, but at other times they report as no signal... ??
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Manny's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wendy; Manny: The Commercial (COM) networks don't have as great a coverage as the Public Service (PSB) channels. Even for transmitters that broadcast the COMs, some viewers will be without, or may find that they are intermittant.
Unfortunately, I think you might fall into the intermittant bracket. You may or may not be lucky and be able to make adjustment to your aerial to give more reliable reception, but nothing is guaranteed. Only time would tell if it was successful.
One possibility is that you give up striving for (good) reception of the COMs and reluctantly accept that you can only receive the PSBs.
If you don't have a satellite receiver you may consider getting Freesat which is a free-to-air service. A comparison of full Freeview versus Freesat is here:
Freeview/Freesat | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
A full list of Freeview services by PSB/COM multiplex is here:
DTG :: DTT Services by Multiplex
The reason for the inferior COM coverage is as follows (this is the long answer):
The COM channels from Durris are at lower transmission power to the PSBs. The COM channels are co-channel (same frequencies) with the PSBs of Knockmore; the PSBs are not. So the reason for the lower power COMs is because the channels are 're-used' in much closer proximity. This is common for all COM transmitters.
For that reason you could either be suffering due to the lower power COMs, or you could be picking up interference from Knockmore, or it could be a bit of both. Indeed, how much signal (interference) travels to you from Knockmore is likely to vary over time. Maybe it will be seasonal due to what is on the terrain changing over time.
You may be able to reposition your aerial to somewhere that the interference from Knockmore isn't as great (assuming this to be the cause). For example, putting it onto one side of the house or using a tree as a shield. A different aerial may improve matters. However, it could be something that keeps re-occurring as factors outside your control change (that is the factors that are causing the Knockmore signal to travel more and/or the Durris COMs not to be as good).
As I say, you may have to give up striving for (good) reception of the COMs and reluctantly accept that you can only receive the PSBs.
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Wendy; Manny: I should add that if interference from Knockmore is the cause then it would be expected that the strength doesn't vary but that the quality does. That is, the signal is still of the same strength but the quality isn't there.
If this isn't the case then maybe it isn't interference from Knockmore, but poor signal from Durris. Maybe adjustment to your aerial (which may include replacement) may help.
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