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Ramthebuffs

Last reply Sep 2, 2007 · posted in Free To Air (FTA) Discussion

Blindscanning

I'm curious how you are supposed to find channels without blindscanning? Do some of the secondary software companies do the scanning? I'm really not sure how this works, but I need to get a box thrown together and get something setup in the next week or so.

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Anole

Aug 29, 2007

You might also check this thread about a new Technisat Skystar HD card that does blind scanning.
Do your homework for support, though. As with any new card.

Ramthebuffs said:
I'm curious how you are supposed to find channels without blindscanning?

The question wasn't clear , but for regular birds, the existing transponder lists are generally just fine.
Same as any FTA box - you got a list of transponders, turn the receiver lose to scan those, and then you have channel lists.

Blind scanning comes into its own when you are hunting feeds on unknown transponders or with unknown transponder specs.
Yea, I suppose if a service changes its transponder specs, you might be left high and dry.
Big deal - that's the exception, not the rule.

And of course, if you are aiming your first dish, find a bird, but aren't sure which one you've got, then blind scanning is great.
But it's not mandatory - there are other ways to go.

Kinda like saying, I can't drive on the freeway without a turbocharger.
Yes, you certainly can!

colbec

Aug 29, 2007

The docs for the Skystart 2 2.6 show this for auto scanning:

"Scan for transponders
In this case you have to enter the start and end frequencies, the step size and up to
three symbol rate values, which should be tested. After these values are entered,
press "Search & Scan" to start the process."

I would be interested to know if the 2.3 version does something different.

This raises the whole question of what blind scanning is our should be. Plainly what is happening with any blind scan you have a start and stop frequency and loop between these points at specified increments. The finer your steps the better the scan and the more chance you will get all of the wild transmissions (and the longer it will take). On the Coolsat the 'full' and 'detail' settings presumably control this, and it must be that I can never blind scan Montana PBS because the frequency or S/R fall between two scans that do not overlap enough.

When it comes to symbol rates, are there specified points at which symbol rates are chosen, or can they be anything on the continuum from 0 to 500,000+?

Stefan

Sep 2, 2007

colbec said:
The docs for the Skystart 2 2.6 show this for auto scanning:

"Scan for transponders
In this case you have to enter the start and end frequencies, the step size and up to
three symbol rate values, which should be tested. After these values are entered,
press "Search & Scan" to start the process."

I would be interested to know if the 2.3 version does something different.

This raises the whole question of what blind scanning is our should be. Plainly what is happening with any blind scan you have a start and stop frequency and loop between these points at specified increments. The finer your steps the better the scan and the more chance you will get all of the wild transmissions (and the longer it will take). On the Coolsat the 'full' and 'detail' settings presumably control this, and it must be that I can never blind scan Montana PBS because the frequency or S/R fall between two scans that do not overlap enough.

When it comes to symbol rates, are there specified points at which symbol rates are chosen, or can they be anything on the continuum from 0 to 500,000+?

True "blind scan" is more that just finding a signal and attempting to lock it using different symbol rates. Using that method would be considered a brute force approach and would take a very long time as symbol rates are often anywhere from 1 to 45Ms/sec. A true blind scan would probably first look for peaks by sweeping through the entire frequency spectrum, in a similar manner but after finding those peaks, which would represent potential signals, would then probably use something akin to the shortwave method for determining symbol rate. As for why some receivers like the coolsat may have an option for optimizing the blind scan for certain symbol rates, it's probably changing the IF bandwidth filtering. If one uses the shortwave method to find symbol rates, it's sometimes advantageous to use an analog receiver with a selection of different IF bandwidths, as sometimes there are situations where multiple thiner carriers are packed onto a single transponder. In situations like that a narrower IF filter will help isolate the carriers from one another when attempting to determine the symbol rate for each.

colbec

Sep 2, 2007

Very interesting, Stefan, thanks. The comment about known stops along the S/R continuum was prompted by the dialog box in ProgDVB which offers a half dozen or so values. ProgDVB will also allow 0 as a value in which case it will still find a signal if there is one to be found, doing a quasi 'blind search' of some kind.

With regard to speed, I was assuming that since we are talking about GHz oscillating transmissions that tests could be done very quickly, evidently a false assumption.

It occurs to me that all I have to do is get the list from Mike Kohl's site and run an analysis of the S/R column to determine if there are 'popular' values. My key for further reading seems to be 'bandwidth filtering'. Now right after the question "Does this receiver do blind scanning?" comes a new question "What kind of blind scanning is that?"

jerryt

Sep 2, 2007

colbec said:
The docs for the Skystart 2 2.6 show this for auto scanning:

"Scan for transponders
."

I would be interested to know if the 2.3 version does something different.

2.3 has a chip which auto tunes the SR rate, so it can do a blind scan of a whole satellite in 60 seconds.

It is not perfect, missing some freq's.

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"MysteryMan"

Pub Member / Supporter Cutting Edge

Last reply 1 minute ago · posted in Computers and Gadgets

Windows 10/11 Download

I created this thread on the original Edgecutter Cutting Edge Forums site. It's simply a place for those to review the latest software available for those using Windows 10 and Windows 11. To date it has received 112,559 views. I have been asked by staff to continue this thread here.

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EarDemon

Oct 13, 2026

If it wasn't for what I want, I wouldn't need any of this.

Do I need a collection of handheld radios, scanners and speed enforcement countermeasures? Nope, but I want them. Very little, if any of the software used to interface with these devices is available on Linux.

WhiteBeard

Oct 13, 2026

EarDemon said:
If it wasn't for what I want, I wouldn't need any of this.

Do I need a collection of handheld radios, scanners and speed enforcement countermeasures? Nope, but I want them. Very little, if any of the software used to interface with these devices is available on Linux.

To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything.

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EarDemon

Oct 14, 2026

WhiteBeard said:
To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything.

For niche use cases, yes I agree. Kali for ethical hacking and security testing, and running a Cacti server for network monitoring are the two things I have experience in. Plus thousands and thousands of other things, but for every day use I just can't see it. The owner of the GMRS repeater that I pay to access is changing the Tx DPL tones tomorrow, while Chirp is available on Linux, the software to program my MXT500 is not.

I run Fedora and Ubuntu in VMWare, honestly I don't care much for the UI of either of them and I don't feel like spending days/weeks to customize the UI to make it look Windows-like when I could just use Windows. The cartoonish dock at the bottom of the screen reminds me of Apple products.

harshness

Oct 15, 2026

EarDemon said:
I don't care much for the UI of either of them and I don't feel like spending days/weeks to customize the UI to make it look Windows-like when I could just use Windows.

What is so fantabulous about the Windows UI? By many accounts, it has been going downhill since Windows 7.

There are Linux desktops that offer Windows or Mac UIs, yet you don't hear much chatter about them outside of questions about when the creators might get sued.

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EarDemon

Oct 15, 2026

harshness said:
What is so fantabulous about the Windows UI?

Because it's what I prefer. I know I've said this a few times, I use Open Shell to give me the cascading start menu a la WIN 95 and NT4.0. The only reason I went from Windows Vista to 7 back in the day was because of Classic Shell. I cannot stand anything other than the OG start menu from 30+ years ago. I'm using ExplorerPatcher to give me Windows 10 UI elements of the taskbar and right click context menus.

If you could take a look at how I set up Windows 95, you'd find many similarities to how I use 11.

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EarDemon

Oct 15, 2026

I could probably use that as a starting point, but I don't like the full size icons. If you have to click on each folder that's also a no-go for me, it has to be cascading.

I used to have Peppermint Linux in a VM, that was about as close as I could get to recreating a Windows NT4.0 style of menu structure, but I could never get it to scale properly in VMWare on a 4K display and eventually gave up.

Whatever the boot up time it's fine with me. The longest part of my bootup is the HP SureStart BIOS integrity check. Once that is done, it's only a few more seconds. I haven't done this reg tweak yet since the reformat, but I switched the bootup animation to the Windows 10 style spinning circle of dots, and it's two and a half rotations. I can live with that.

harshness

Oct 16, 2026

EarDemon said:
Because it's what I prefer.

I hope you don't believe that makes it wonderful (especially when you're using workarounds for Microsoft's malfeasance).

I use LibreOffice as opposed to Microsoft office (even in Windows) because it's UI is like the Office of old, so I'm putting my money where my mouth is (in a manner of speaking). The ribbon was one of the worst ideas to come out Redmond.

HipKat

Oct 16, 2026

EarDemon said:
I could probably use that as a starting point, but I don't like the full size icons. If you have to click on each folder that's also a no-go for me, it has to be cascading.

I used to have Peppermint Linux in a VM, that was about as close as I could get to recreating a Windows NT4.0 style of menu structure, but I could never get it to scale properly in VMWare on a 4K display and eventually gave up.

Whatever the boot up time it's fine with me. The longest part of my bootup is the HP SureStart BIOS integrity check. Once that is done, it's only a few more seconds. I haven't done this reg tweak yet since the reformat, but I switched the bootup animation to the Windows 10 style spinning circle of dots, and it's two and a half rotations. I can live with that.

I used to pin the C: drive to the Win Taskbar and it would open in cascading style

"MysteryMan"

1 minute ago

2026-10 Preview Update Builds: 26300.9818 and 26200.9818 (KB5127936) has been released. Moderate time needed for those choosing to perform a manual download/install/restart. Quality improvements only. No new operating system features.

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TWiT Tech Podcast Network

4 minutes ago · posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network

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Scott Greczkowski

Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge

Last reply 28 minutes ago · posted in The Chit Chat Club

Song Name Game Part 3!

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CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

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Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

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An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....

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Van

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Whats for breakfast?

Who says dinner or lunch has to be the only good meals of the day?

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Oct 17, 2026

Dos cackleberrys over easy on top of 2 corned beef hash patties fried in skillet... Chocolate milk.

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