Advice pls on channel searching

leecovuk

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hello everyone,

My situation may be specific to my PIXX 3500B receiver, but maybe I'm missing a general technique that you can advise me on;

I find I can do a channel search (after factory default reset) in 2 different ways to find channels, but both find / lose some channels and I don't seem to be able to search to include all of them. Doing a manual search of a frequency appears to find nothing.

The 2 methods I am using are searching using the 'New TP' option, and the other is using the 'NIT ON' option. I have tried various combinations of these and other options but I really don't have any idea what I'm doing.

In case it helps, here are the search options I have access to: (I understand what the fta and scramble ones mean)

New TP
FTA Only
Sort by scramble
NIT ON
Fast Scan ON
Detail Scan

selecting Detail Scan opens a further options box with these options: (again, I don't understand them)

RF Frequency (shows 950 as default)
-- RF Frequency (shows 2150 as default)
Symbol Rate 1, 2, 3 and 4 (shows defaults as 0)

Thanks for any guidance here; the manual is very brief and I am really at a loss.

lee
.
 

Llew

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Choices,choices...

The receiver certainly seems to have plenty of options. The detail scan will scan the TP's currently stored in your receiver over the default range of frequencies (950 - 2150 converted down from the ku band by your LN:cool:.

You appear to have a selection of symbol rates which the receiver can scan, but of which these are, I wouldn't know. Perhaps when you do the scan, there's some indication of the SR's it's checking on screen as it progresses?

New TP obviously allows you to enter a TP to scan not at present in your box, or to update an existing TP.

Not knowing your receiver. afraid I can't help much further.

Llew
 

BGonaSTICK

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leecovuk, I have no idea what you're talking about, but I love your avatar!!!!

:-bunny :-bunny :-bunny
 

BGonaSTICK

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Sorry for the double posting, but I have to just mention that the BBC testcard used to give me nightmares as a kid.

No really. If you can ignore the clown's head for a minute, the clown's body becomes a green skull with a purple nose, looking straight at the girl.

I've always despised the BBC for inflicting massive psychological scars on me with that testcard!!!

Twitch. :-nuts :-wow :-crying

STICK
 

Llew

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Wish they showed it again. Better than the programmes they have now :-toilet

More test cards for you perusal here -

h**p://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/testcard/

Llew
 

Analoguesat

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If you arent finding everything you probably have some transpoonders missing from the internal list.

I think NIT = Network Information Table, and will just scan anything flagged as belonging to a particular network
 

leecovuk

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thanks guys,

Yes, the testcard always struck me as quite disturbing too !

As for my search issues, it is a little frustrating that searching with NIT ON finds otherwise missing channels from Eurobird for example, but then the results show that previously found channels on various satellites have vanished.

I'm sure I'm doing it wrong; I'm obviously wanting to do a blind search or the closest thing to it. Maybe I shouldn't do a factory reset in my attempts to start from scratch again, but otherwise I don't seem to be able to find anything on the missed frequencies. This is despite the fact that the signal strength and quality on those are reported as very strong.

I'm kind of going round in circles here, which is a shame because the receiver seems to be able to find everything if only I knew what I and it were doing !
 

leecovuk

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just to add;
I don't see the receiver cycling through all options on a transponder whilst it's doing the search scan, but presumably it is because it 'thinks' then displays what it has found and / or moves on.
 

leecovuk

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i seem to be working this out;

I decided to delete all the transponders shown in my pixx and then use the lyngsat charts to decide what I wanted to look for. I then found I could successfully set up a new transponder with the relevant settings and search to find all the listed channels there.

I can only assume that before when I tried this or a manual frequency search, the pixx must have thought 'no, I don't recognise that frequency' or 'I've already been there'.... or something ...

I haven't consciously used NIT for my latest successes, although I noticed earlier when sweep searching with NIT that the transponder total often increased, presumably when the NIT data was detected. It was just weird that this process seemed to fail to find other channels I knew I could receive from earlier sweep searches. I then seemed to get into the trap I described earlier where manual searches to bring those missing ones back wasn't working out.

Still haven't got my head around the use and purpose of the PID and similar settings, but looks like I don't need to.
 
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