Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A base station may generate a sequence for use in scrambling a PBCH. The base station may then partition the sequence into sub-sequences based on a number of SS blocks in a SS block group. The base station may then apply each sub-sequence of the sequence as a scrambling code for the bits associated with the PBCH of a different SS block within a SS block group and transmit at least one SS block scrambled with one of the sub-sequences. A user equipment may decode the PBCH based on the sequence.