A scan acquisition technique for acquiring terminals (62, 64) that does not rely on precise alignment between a sensor (66, 70) and a transmitter (68, 72) associated with the terminals (62, 64). The terminals (62, 64) separate uncertainty regions (76, 78) into a plurality of sections (88, 90). Scan beams (82, 84) include encoded information of what section (88, 90) the scan beam (82, 84) is currently scanning. Each terminal (62, 64) will eventually receive the scan beam (82, 84) of the other terminal (62, 64). When it does, it will encode its scan beam (82, 84) with both the outgoing code and the return code for that section (88, 90), so that when it's scan beam (82, 84) is received by the other terminal (62, 64), that terminal (62, 64) will know what scan section (88, 90) the other terminal (62, 64) is located.