Full Freeview on the Pontop Pike (County Durham, England) transmitter
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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 17/02/2025 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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Friday, 9 February 2024
C
Chris.SE6:32 PM
Dale:
As you can see from the post before yours, the transmitter is listed for Planned Engineering, so there maybe interruptions to transmission which are usually brief.
I hope you didn't retune whilst you had no signal as this may have cleared your correct tuning. You cannot tune to signals that are not there or can't be decoded.
I trust you have the channels back now.
Prior to this have you had any regular interference problems with any other multiplexes?
Your postcode should have had postcards from https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/
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Wednesday, 13 March 2024
D
Dylan green7:55 PM
Why am I able to pick up channels from pontop pike
In north frodingham east Yorkshire?
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S
Steve Donaldson8:50 PM
Dylan green: Is it not Bilsdale you're picking up? I think you may get Bilsdale in North Frodingham.
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Thursday, 20 February 2025
R
Richie10:47 PM
Pontop pike pixilated and going black on most Freeview channels in South Northumberland the last two nights. Anyone else getting the same?
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S
StevensOnln111:38 PM
Richie: There are currently planned engineering works listed for Pontop Pike. Unfortunately no details are given regarding what the works entail or how long they are expected to take.
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C
Chris.SE11:59 PM
Richie:
As you haven't given a full postcode we can't check your predicted reception, so it's possible that the engineering work mentioned by StevensOnln1 and noted at the Top of the page, is resulting in your signals being somewhat weaker than may normally be the case. Do NOT retune. Doing so could result in clearing correct tuning as you can't tune to signals that aren't there or can't be decoded.
If you have retuned, check in your TV Tuning section that you are correctly tuned to Pontop Pike's UHF channels.
As shown in the very top section of this page, the UHF channels are C39, C42, C45, C32, C34, & C35,
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Friday, 21 February 2025
R
Richie4:19 PM
Many thanks. The relative signal strengths of the different MUXs were all over the place this morning. Although strangely the BBC MUX C39 which had the lowest sig strength (2% on TV) wasn't one of the ones that was breaking up, and had good signal quality! The MUX C42 with ITV/CH4, etc had a much stronger sig strength (21%) but just displayed random coloured pixelated blocks and poor sig quality. Cramlington NE23. It seems strange that so many major UK DTV transmitters are all marked for Engineering Work in the week commencing 17/02/2025. Arqiva must have a lot of engineers that are keen to climb towers in February weather !!!
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C
Chris.SE7:06 PM
Richie:
Hmmm. Those signal strengths do seem somewhat low even with engineering works, as your area generally should get excellent reception from Pontop Pike. Signal Quality being 100% is far more important though.
I assume you done obvious things such as check your aerial is still pointing correctly - compass bearing ~207degrees (roughly SSW) and it looks undamaged and the coax isn't flapping about in the wind.
Also check the aerial socket in the room (or the plug on the end of the coax if it comes direct), to ensure there's not water in the cable or corrosion present.
Do you have any aerial amp/splitter to feed more than one TV/Box? If so check it's still powered etc.
Now there's a couple of other possibilities.
If this is a problem that comes and goes, it could be Tropospheric Ducting that sometimes happens with high pressure and signals from distant transmitters using similar channels (Europe or UK) can travel further and cause interference. There's been a bit of it about and may get worse again late Saturday into Sunday.
Another possibility is interference from a new or upgraded mobile phone mast now operating in the 700MHz band, you may have received a postcard from Restore TV. Have you seen any new masts near you?
As you haven't given a full postcode, I can't check but put your postcode in here -
https://restoretv.uk/postcards-not-sure/
For example NE23 6JA & 6QW should have had them, but 6JN, 6JR, and 6BN supposedly not.
Even if you haven't had one, it could still be mobile interference as we know some people have not had cards when they should have, so if the problem persists over a longer period, then it'll be worth contacting Restore TV for a free filter.
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C
Chris.SE7:13 PM
Richie:
Forgot to add, the engineering work won't necessarily be climbing masts (especially in this weather)!
It could well be work on the equipment. We don't know what was replaced or upgraded with DSO or during any recent changes for the 800MHz & 700MHz clearance. It's a good 12 years since DSO and Arqiva will want to ensure that equipment will work(hopefully until 2034 (at least) where possible.
There's been many main transmitters (and quite a few relays) that have had weeks of engineering on & off for quite some time (more than a year for some).
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Saturday, 22 February 2025
R
Richie11:56 AM
Hi Chris. Thanks for all your tips. I've visually inspected the antenna from ground level. It's a roof mounted wideband log-periodic and it's still pointing on the correct bearing for Pontop Pike, and doesn't appear to have sustained any obvious damage. There's a loft-mounted amplifier that splits the TV signal to bedroom, lounge and kitchen TVs. The LG TVs in the bedroom and lounge currently can't receive anything other than the BBC channels on MUX C39 which display fine, everything else is 100% pixelated or shows as channel unavailable on these sets. The strange thing is that the cheap Polaroid brand telly in the kitchen is showing ITV, CH4, E4, etc on MUX C42, with only occasional glitches every few seconds! Everything was perfectly fine a couple of weeks ago, and nobody has been in the loft or messed with the antenna outside.
It's interesting that you mention the 700MHz & 800MHz clearance issue. About 2 or 3 years ago we started getting intermittent TVI (severe pixelation and muted sound) on the BBC channels. This started about a month after a new 5G mast popped up half a mile from our home and *directly* in line of sight to Pontop Pike. Sig strength was always up around 85%, and quality 95% but would momentarily drop to 1% or 2% when glitching. Sometimes you could go weeks without a problem and then it would happen every night. There was usually an engineer with hi-vis jacket on sticking his head inside the cabinet at the base of the mobile tower on the mornings right after we got horrendous TVI !!! Eventually realised it was interference. Spoke to bloke at "Clear at 800" on the phone and he sent a filter out. It did nothing after the loft amplifier-splitter, but cured the problem completely when I climbed into the loft and put it between the antenna download and the amplifier. So, yes, we have had our fair share of problems with the government's ridiculous idea to sell off part of the UHF TV band, as have others in this area! Nobody received cards through the post about this.
PP is 18 miles SSW of us over the brow of the hill in Cramlington, so we don't get a very strong signal to start with where we live. Putting a powerful local source of interference half a mile from us on exactly the same bearing as PP hasn't helped, but don't have much elevation to get a decent signal from Chatton 31 miles to the north either (>.<)
I remember seeing European analogue TV like ZDF, TV2, etc. a couple of times in the summer via tropo scatter as a teenager. On one occasion was good enough signal to get teletext coming through! Even got some Swedish channels... Never anything interesting to watch though! ;-)))
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