Radioshack Corporation

Alan M L Lam

Vincent M T Lam

John M Clark

Ian Dwayne Campbell

David J Edmondson

Wai-Fong Lee

Raymond C C Ho

Watson C K Chow

Marco C Ko

A broadband antenna apparatus that is generally disposed along a plane. The antenna apparatus includes a ground plate with an edge and an inverted 'L' antenna that has a base leg and an elongated leg, which define an interior corner. The interior corner is filled with a triangulated portion for broadening the bandwidth of the antenna. There is an antenna feed point at a distal end of the base leg. The antenna is oriented so that the distal end of the base leg is adjacent to the edge, forming a first dielectric gap therebetween, and further oriented with the elongated leg parallel to the edge. A first parasitic ground element extends from the edge and is positioned adjacent to the base leg, forming a second dielectric gap therebetween. The antenna apparatus also includes a second parasitic ground element extending from the edge of the ground plate.

Broadband television antenna

A radio modulator and method with a radio band scan function. The apparatus consists of a frequency selectable RF signal transmitter, a switch that couples the RF signal to an antenna, and a demodulator coupled to mix a received antenna signal with the RF signal to produce an indicia of signal strength at the receive frequency resulting from that mix. A channel memory is coupled to store plural indicia of signal strength values corresponding to plural receive frequencies. A controller is coupled to the transmitter, the switch, the channel memory, and a display. In operation, the controller enables the frequency scan function by decoupling the switch, tuning the transmitter RF signal to plural frequencies, which causes the demodulator to receive plural receive frequencies within the radio band. The controller also stores the resultant plural corresponding indicia of signal strength in the channel memory, and then compares the stored plural indicia of signal strength to select a present transmit frequency that has a low signal interfering level. Next, the controller couples the transmitter to the antenna, tunes the RF signal to the present transmit frequency, and displays the present transmit frequency on the display.

Frequency scanning radio modulator and method

An apparatus and method for determining the orientation of Earth's magnetic poles. A magnet is pivotally coupled to a support and is free to orient itself with Earth's magnetic pole. A detector is fixed relative to the support and outputs a signal indicative of the magnet orientation. A display displays an indication of the relative orientation of Earth's magnetic pole consistent with the output signal. Plural detectors can be employed to increase resolution of the apparatus. The detectors can be optical detectors. A shutter is fixed to the magnet and the detectors sense the shutter position. The shutter has a patterned formed thereon with transmissive portions and opaque portions. Shutter blinds are added to limit the dispersion of light.

Electronic compass apparatus and method

A wind gauge apparatus and method. An illustrative embodiment includes a microphone positioned to engage wind pressure from a first relative direction and a controller coupled to receive an audio signal from the microphone. The controller compares the audio signal with plural threshold values, representative of wind pressure levels, and determines a first wind pressure level incident upon the microphone. Filtering and gain controls are used to condition the audio signal output from the microphone. Plural microphones are employed to allow that detection of wind direction and magnitude about a compass of directions. Digital signal processing is employed to process data. In an illustrative embodiment, the wind direction and magnitude data are used to recommend a golf club size adjustment and a golf swing direction adjustment to the user, who has taken a measurement of the wind with respect to a reference golf swing direction. In another embodiment, a temperature sensor is added and the controller calculates a wind chill factor.

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Hong Kong, China

Alan M L Lam