Salvage trade data mission

So I'm just jumping back into ED after a few months off, and this is my first time playing with 1.6 (not sure yet if Horizons is worth it for me). I like the new mission board, but I accepted a mission that required me to fly to a particular system and search signal sources to find "trade data" to return to the original station. I've spent the last two hours trying to find it. I've stopped at tons of degraded signals and encoded signals, and still haven't found the item. I once found a few trade data canisters, and picked one up, but the mission did not update and still said I have 0/1 of the items; it also says the trade data is a unique item, so presumably it would be marked in particular when looking through contacts. Am I doing something wrong, or does it just take this many tries? I get that it's a slow game, and missions take some effort and patience. But when a mission like this only pays 36k and takes 2+ hours to do, I would be better off just hunting down some wanted Eagles and taking the bounty; I could have easily made more than the mission payout in this amount of time. So is it user error, or bad game balance?
 
That's likely not YOUR trade data. Your mission object will be marked in blue, and the game will outright tell you "Mission object found!!!". Also be sure to scan the system or the nav beacon first, you will receive a message telling you exactly where your mission target will be found. Fly to the specified body, near enough to see the exclusion line, and go around it until mission object appears. I have done tons of these missions recently so they are working.
 
Just one thing to be aware of with Trade Data Salvage missions. I have found that they sre often guarded by a wing of NPCs who attack almost immediately.

I lost my Python twice before I worked out that I needed to get in, target a can for the limpet and get out asap. 4 runs for 4 cans and I still took damage.

The Encrypted Data Salvage missions don't seem to have the same guardians and are much easier to complete.
 
Just one thing to be aware of with Trade Data Salvage missions. I have found that they sre often guarded by a wing of NPCs who attack almost immediately.

I lost my Python twice before I worked out that I needed to get in, target a can for the limpet and get out asap. 4 runs for 4 cans and I still took damage.

The Encrypted Data Salvage missions don't seem to have the same guardians and are much easier to complete.

I have set up a fast Cobra for these missions. Get in, grab, get out fast :)
 
I have set up a fast Cobra for these missions. Get in, grab, get out fast :)

I use an A-rated Clipper for smash 'n grab. Unfortunately, derpy limpets don't help. If they don't suicide into debris the stupid things get blown up by enemy fire as they inexplicably dive a mile under my ship to line up with the cargo hatch.
 
Yup, what others have said. You can get a quick location when you jump in system. Go to the nav becon drop out of super cruise, and lock on and fully scan nav becon. You will get a location to go search in system.

When you get close to the identified location you will be notified of your target. As someone said it will be in in blue. Drop in and get ready.

Locate and grab them quick. I have only been able to grab 2 at a time if they are located near you to start. Once the other ships drop in, get out fast. Don't wait. If you wait you will take damage or be knocked out.

I have only been successful with a cobra, but I can do it pretty cleanly with it. Tried an asp explorer and couldn't grab 1 canister. The damage I was taking cost me about 80,000 in total before I stopped trying and went back to the cobra.
 
Yup, what others have said. You can get a quick location when you jump in system. Go to the nav becon drop out of super cruise, and lock on and fully scan nav becon. You will get a location to go search in system.

When you get close to the identified location you will be notified of your target. As someone said it will be in in blue. Drop in and get ready.

Locate and grab them quick. I have only been able to grab 2 at a time if they are located near you to start. Once the other ships drop in, get out fast. Don't wait. If you wait you will take damage or be knocked out.

I have only been successful with a cobra, but I can do it pretty cleanly with it. Tried an asp explorer and couldn't grab 1 canister. The damage I was taking cost me about 80,000 in total before I stopped trying and went back to the cobra.

The T6 is also fast enough to get out unscathed. Just don't try that with a full cargo slowing you down. Trust me.
 
If you don't want to waste time stopping and scanning the nav beacon, and you have a spare slot in your ship, install an Advanced Discovery Scanner instead. Give it a honk, and you'll get a mission update message telling you exactly which star, planet or moon you need to be in the vicinity of to get the special blue mission USSs to pop up.

If other ships turn up (they don't always), then close up shop and get out of Dodge ASAP, since a salvage ship is unlikely to be equipped to fight multiple heavy NPCs. If you didn't finish scooping up enough mission-critical cargo, don't worry, just keep cruising near the target planet and more blue USSs will pop up. You can even get blown up and fly back to the same location and resume as if nothing went wrong. They'll keep popping up until you get your quota of cargo, at which time you'll get another mission update message. No more blue USSs for that mission will spawn and you will fail the mission if you lose the cargo from then on.
 
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