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Last month, Britain’s Channel Four, announced that it was testing free-to-air (FTA) broadcasting. This prompted numerous excited viewers to re-jig their receivers for the new service. Shortly afterwards, however, the London-based independent television channel started messing about with the audio and many of you had your new toy snatched away.

When audio is not transmitted, a satellite receiver can react in one of two ways. It will either ignore the lack of audio and just transmit the picture with no sound or it will be fooled into thinking that the transmission is scrambled and put up a ‘scrambled’ message. This is why some FTA receivers show pictures; others will show the channel as scrambled. It all depends on the individual receiver.

At the moment, Channel Four is operating two separate feeds on Astra 2. One is the channel on Astra 2D, while the other is the normally encrypted version on Astra 2A. This is why those with functioning Sky digiboxes and viewing cards remain unaffected by these tests. Channel Four is currently preparing to join the new Freesat service alongside other already free-to-air channels like BBC, ITV and FilmFour. Freesat is the new BBC/ITV joint venture announced a couple of years ago and which is scheduled to be launched in the UK later this month. Actual details on the launch of Freesat are difficult to come by. The best guess is May 6. For this reason, the hope is that Channel Four will be a proper free-to-air channel by then and will be available on all FTA receivers. Keep fingers crossed.

Further Details on Getting Channel Four The big difference between Freesat and free-to-air receivers will be the seven-day Electronic Programme Guide (EPG). The EPG won’t be available on the thousands of FTA satellite receivers currently being used in France and Switzerland, but the channels will. BBC, ITV and FilmFour already available on FTA receivers will continue to be accessible after Freesat starts. That will apply to new channels joining Freesat, such as Channel Four. There is absolutely no sign of Channel Five doing anything about going free-to-air just yet.

The test channel doesn’t carry any programme synopsis data. Nor are there any ‘now’ and ‘next’ data. So, to get a taste of Channel Four free-to-air programming, you need to scan in the transponder on your FTA receiver. The test version of Channel Four is using the same transponder as FilmFour. If you receive FilmFour now, you will be able to get Channel Four once you have searched that transponder again. Be aware that unlike those with Sky-type controlling software, new channels do not automatically appear in your programme list. You have to programme them in yourself.

The transponder currently used by FilmFour and the testing Channel Four is:

Frequency = 10.729

Polarity = Vertical

Symbol Rate = 22000

Normally, when you search a transponder, the name of the channel appears on the screen. In the case of the Channel Four test, you will see the identity ‘8350’. Simply save this to your list. Some FTA receivers will allow you to rename the ‘8350’ to ‘Channel Four’ and position the new channel anywhere you like.

The Big Dish satellite company in France – but also available to Swiss residents - offers a programming service on its website showing you how to add new channels on the specific FTA receivers that the company has supplied over the years. For the new Technomate TM5200, for example, it is possible to download a file and automatically upgrade the receiver with the new channel. Big Dish has already written the upgrade and it can be downloaded free-of-charge from its website.

John Sidwell is a satellite television specialist and runs his own company Big Dish Satellite in France. For further details on the company's services, go to: www.bigdishsat.com