Wireless devices and techniques providing improved system acquisition in an environment of multiple co-existing technologies over a common frequency band are disclosed. In one aspect, at a remote terminal, a power spectral distribution (PSD) of received signals is sequentially measured in contiguous segments of a frequency band of interest. One or more characteristics of the measured PSD is compared to at least one predetermined metric to identify the presence or absence of at least one technology type of the received signals in frequency locations across the band. A system acquisition operation is performed in accordance with the identification, such as a tailored scan of channels at locations where a desired technology is identified.