If I have confirmed a signal from an unknown satellite with my satfinder, will Smartscan scan the Ku frequencies and look for "live" transponders? (Almost sounds too good to be true.) If someone could explain how Smartscan works would appreciate it very much. I am a newbie at this and am having great difficulties trying to find a quality signal even though I am hitting all the"birds" with my satfinder. Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Pansast 2500 Smartscan How Does It Work?
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Blind search receivers sample the specified polarities, frequencies and symbol rates in steps. Once the presence of a signal is found it is logged then identified. Many blind search receivers allow the operator to adjust the parameters of the scan I.E. polarity, frequency range, symbol rate range, FTA / data / scrambled, etc.
I have a Pansat 2500A. Before I can do a SmartScan (blind search) must I have a quality signal or (b) if I know from a satellite finder I have a signal can I do a blind search (thinking of how some police scanners scan between two inputted frequencies and log active frequencies).
Its more productive to only scan where you have signal quality, but if you are close to where you think the satellite is let the blind scan do the work, let it scan away take a break come back and see what "you" have found, after you find a satellite and identify it store it and it will make the set up a little easier. Found a few satellite this way before I got a professional meter : )
Thank you Peter! I have lurked here for a while and enjoyed the exchanges. When time permits I hope to participate.
You cant do a scan unless you have a quality signal on a TP...otherwise your results will not be good 
I must disagree with Iceberg here. After much frustration in trying to figure out exactly how far wrong my setup was (e.g. does 40 on the pole really mean 40 degrees inclination?), I made my best guess at pointing, then hooked up my cheap satellite finder and started slowly sweeping the sky.
When I got a loud nearby signal, I still had no quality for the frequency/SR numbers I was using. I ran a blind scan anyway. Unlike my previous blind scans, which dutifully flipped through the receiver's list of frequencies and reported nothing, this time I found something. From the channel names, I quickly determined through LyngSat that I hadn't found the G10R I was looking for; instead, I had nearby G13.
But this was a huge, huge breakthrough. Not only did it prove that all my equipment was working correctly (something I suspected but couldn't otherwise prove), it also provided me with the correction factors that I could use to find anything in the sky.
I peaked the G13 signal, then recorded what my compass and inclination setting showed, then compared them with the actual figures for my location. That's how I subtracted out the correction factors. I added the corrections to the correct G10R settings, and almost in less time than it takes to type, I found a quality signal. Later I repeated the process to find AMC4 with little effort.
In summary, if you've got a sat finder, you might be able to use it to set up a blind scan even if you can't find quality for the TP you want.
When I got a loud nearby signal, I still had no quality for the frequency/SR numbers I was using. I ran a blind scan anyway. Unlike my previous blind scans, which dutifully flipped through the receiver's list of frequencies and reported nothing, this time I found something. From the channel names, I quickly determined through LyngSat that I hadn't found the G10R I was looking for; instead, I had nearby G13.
But this was a huge, huge breakthrough. Not only did it prove that all my equipment was working correctly (something I suspected but couldn't otherwise prove), it also provided me with the correction factors that I could use to find anything in the sky.
I peaked the G13 signal, then recorded what my compass and inclination setting showed, then compared them with the actual figures for my location. That's how I subtracted out the correction factors. I added the corrections to the correct G10R settings, and almost in less time than it takes to type, I found a quality signal. Later I repeated the process to find AMC4 with little effort.
In summary, if you've got a sat finder, you might be able to use it to set up a blind scan even if you can't find quality for the TP you want.
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