Fta Receivers Terminology???

[crankbooster]

Can anyone give a detailed explanation on the following terms loosely used by Receiver's manufacturers:-

1. Blind scan
2. Blind search
3. Auto scan
4. Normal Scan
5. Manual Scan

You are free to add any more you have seen on Receiver's Advert.
Thanks

[rainman]

Originally Posted by crankbooster

Can anyone give a detailed explanation on the following terms loosely used by Receiver's manufacturers:-

1. Blind scan
2. Blind search
3. Auto scan
4. Normal Scan
5. Manual Scan

You are free to add any more you have seen on Receiver's Advert.
Thanks

the first three are the same thing just adifferent way of saying it.
normal scan is just scanning the TP you have loaded in the receiver.
manual scan is when you add the TP freq and the SR freq.
hope this helped.

[bobkat]

Well put rainman. Sometimes "Auto Scan" is not the same as blind scan or blind search. Sometimes it simply means that the receiver will scan all the transponders in its memory rather than all the active transponders on the satellite. So it could miss some channels.

kat

[crankbooster]

Thaks guys but how does Power Search comes into the whole Arithmetic?

[wejones]

Originally Posted by crankbooster

Thaks guys but how does Power Search comes into the whole Arithmetic?

That's what Fortec calls blind scan.
Fortec also has network scan and advanced scan modes. Advanced lets you edit PIDs and network grabs more than one transponder in the same network.

[boroda1]

"Manual Scan" is the same as "TP scan", I guess.
"Auto Scan" is not the same as "Blind Scan/Power Search"
"Auto Scan" = "Satellite Scan" in Coolsat menu, it scans active and preset transponders, already in receiver's memory.
You also forgot "Network Scan" aka "NIT scan"

[crankbooster]

I got a Starcruiser 9000 from the guy who installed my KU system because it has a blind scan feature.
But I notice that the scanning is not blind at all. All it does is to scan the Frequency and SR already in the unit and some times some of this frequency are not correct with the SR.
So I had to manually enter the frequency and SR.
Is there really a Receiver out there that actually does a Blind scan? i.e you just point your dish to say 97 W and it will automaically scan for all active frequency and SR without you needing to enter anything manually?

[pmb1010]

Originally Posted by crankbooster

Is there really a Receiver out there that actually does a Blind scan?

My lifetime Ultra does.
The Mercury II does.

[boroda1]

Originally Posted by crankbooster

I got a Starcruiser 9000 from the guy who installed my KU system because it has a blind scan feature.
But I notice that the scanning is not blind at all. All it does is to scan the Frequency and SR already in the unit and some times some of this frequency are not correct with the SR.

The best way to check is to erase all the transponders, and then perform a blind scan.

[rainman]

the ultra and the satworks i got does blind scan the ultra does a better job as the satworks misses some channels.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by rainman

the ultra and the satworks i got does blind scan the ultra does a better job as the satworks misses some channels.

My Ultra misses a LOT of transponders if I use the "full" scan, or whatever it is called. I have to scan in both high and low SR modes to get all the channels. I've seen this so bad at times that doing a full scan, I found NOTHING, whereas when I did the two separate scans I found many dozens of channels.

[crankbooster]

Originally Posted by wejones

My Ultra misses a LOT of transponders if I use the "full" scan, or whatever it is called. I have to scan in both high and low SR modes to get all the channels. I've seen this so bad at times that doing a full scan, I found NOTHING, whereas when I did the two separate scans I found many dozens of channels.

The miss with the full scan is it a general issue with the ultra or just your set?

[wejones]

Originally Posted by crankbooster

The miss with the full scan is it a general issue with the ultra or just your set?

I have no way to tell obviously. I haven't heard anyone else confirm this, but I'm not sure if anyone else has really done a test. I doubt that it is related to just my Ultra, but it may have something to do with the quality of signal, so it may be different from dish to dish, and sat to sat. Ie some days, the full scan works relatively well for me, but other days it is terrible, so it must have something to do with signal strength and/or interferrence from other sats/polarity, etc.
But whatever the cause, I think it is worth experimenting by doing the scans in different ways, particularly if you aren't able to scan in some transponders that you know are there.

[Sadoun]

When a receiver mfg claims to have Blind Search (Power Scan), make sure it is also supported by the hardware, not only software. I have heard that some manufacturers offering BLIND search receivers (software only). That is not full BLIND SEARCH. Also, some mfg call the Auto Scan as Blind Search. That is not correct.

Fortec's receivers incorporate HW and SW full blind search capability.

[StevenS]

Don't forget there is also "Powerscan" whereas active transponders are loaded authomaticaly in conjunction with channel scans thereafter.