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Free-to-air satellite reception of major British channels has gone through some changes over the past weeks. John Sidwell, our correspondent from www.bigdishsat.com, gives us some useful insight into how to get back on track with your viewing. During the month of August, he writes, there was a good deal of shuffling around by Channel Four and its sibling channels, FilmFour, More 4 and E4. It looks like the changes have now been finalised and that the channels have found new homes on the Astra 2 satellite.

Those with free-to-air receivers will have noticed the disruption. Some will have lost the channels . Our site www.bigdishsat.com/broadband.php shows you how to get them back.

In theory, those with Sky Digiboxes and a viewing card should not have noticed any difference with the reception of Channel 4. However, some of you may have experienced problems with the channel. We’ll explain why later.

Free to Air (FTA) Receivers: When freesat launched four months ago, Channel 4 hurriedly started a FTA transmission on 10729 whilst at the same time maintaining its encrypted transmission to satisfy its contract with Sky. That encrypted transmission to Sky Digiboxes has now ceased but the FTA transmission has moved to another transponder.

The Channel Four group of channels now looks like this: 10714 /H/ 22000 : Channel 4, FimFour, FilmFour+1, More4+1 10729 /V/ 22000 : E4, E4+1, Channel 4+1, More4

All you have to do is scan these channels into your FTA receiver by doing a Manual (or Advanced) Search. Before you do this, it’s a good idea to delete the ‘old’ Channel 4 etc in your list.

The new channels that you scan in will appear at the end of your channel list. You should be able to move them into a more convenient position.

Regular FTA owners will know that we have help on our website for adding channels to receivers that we have supplied over the years. When you scan in the above frequencies, you will notice that Several versions of Channel 4 and Channel 4+1 will appear in the scanned-in list. These are regional variations of the channels and the only difference is the adverts shown in the commercial breaks.

Sky Digiboxes: If you have a Sky Digibox with a viewing card, then you should be blissfully unaware of any changes to Channel 4. You are probably wondering what the first section of this article is all about. The software in the Sky Digibox absorbs all the changes that are happening on the satellite so you don’t have to do the re-programming that FTA owners do.

If you have the freesat card (ie the card that you paid about 20 pounds for), you will notice that you can extract the card from the digibox and Channel Four will still work. In fact, your freesat-from-sky card is only giving you Five, its siblings and Sky Three. If you have a Sky Digibox but don’t have a viewing card, then you can only get Channel 4 by using the Other Channels method that we told you about in a previous newsletter.

Channel 4 still doesn’t appear in the Electronic Programme Guide but there is now a way of making it appear so you don’t have to use the ‘Other Channels’ method.

Simply borrow a Sky card of any kind from your friend or neighbour and insert it into your Sky digibox. After a couple of minutes, hand it back to your friend or neighbour along with a suitable token of your thanks and you will find that Channel 4 is now in your TV Guide.

As long as you don’t switch off your Sky digibox at the mains, Channel 4 will continue to appear in the EPG.

Signal Problems: Channel 4 has always transmitted from Astra 2 satellite such that it reached into most of western Europe. When it abandoned Sky and switched to an FTA transmission, it had to use a part of Astra 2 that is more tightly focused onto the UK and therefore left many parts of western Europe with a much weaker signal.

In the UK, many Sky viewers who receive Channel 4 via their Sky Digiboxes have noticed that their reception has been compromised and the same applies to viewers in France. In fact, the Channel 4 change has highlighted deficiencies in satellite installations  So, if you have recently experienced problems with Channel 4, ie mosaiicing or loss of signal, then you need to get your dish installation checked.

In France or Switzerland, the further south you are, then the weaker the signal for Channel Four becomes . In fact, this is also true for BBC and ITV. Rain can affect the signals but it’s only torrential rain that should cause the dreaded ‘No Satellite Signal Being Received’.

If you have signal problems during light rain or cloudy conditions, then that indicates a problem with your installation. Problems like this could be due to many causes: Tree branches in front of the dish Dish mis-aligned (only needs to be a millimetre out!) LNB not skewed properly. Cable in poor condition or kinked.

The new Channel Four frequency is actually the lowest one used on the Astra 2 satellite so it could well be highlighting a problem inside the LNB itself. This is because the electronic circuit inside the LNB is having to operate very close to its design limit …and may not be up to the job.

Five … coming soon. Now that BBC, ITV and Channel Four are free-to-air, we are waiting for Five to complete the package. The channel has announced its intention to FTA and also to join the new freesat system. No date has been formally announced but their encryption contract with Sky finishes next month so we should see Five on FTA and freesat boxes in October.

It’s also highly probable that Channel 4HD will go the same route and join BBC HD and ITV HD on the freesat system. Freesat News: Here’s a question which is often asked: “what’s the difference between free to air and freesat?” There’s no difference between the actual channels that the boxes can receive, just the way that they are organised. The real difference is the seven day viewing guide and Red Button interactive services … freesat boxes have them and free to air boxes don’t.

And finally ... Just a reminder of our freesat prices, the standard receiver is 99 euros and the high definition version is 240 euros. There is no subscription, no viewing card and the boxes use the same satellite dish as Sky.

More details here: www.bigdishsat.com/store/index.php Our cordless speakers suffered a 'rupture de stock' in August and apologies to all those who had to wait. They are available again and are a great way to receive UK radio stations around the house and garden. They cost 89,99 for a pair and you will find full details on our website.We are installing more and more Broadband via Satellite systems for those who can only get dial-up or don't have a telephone line. Monthly subscriptions start at 30 euros per month with no minimum contract period.

For further  information, go to www.bigdishsat.com