Sony Corporation

Hiroshi Furuno

Noboru Someno

Katsusuke Munekata

A portable telephone includes a main body of the telephone, a transducer (preferably an earphone) contained in the main body so that it can be removed therefrom, a cord connecting the transducer and the main body, and a switching mechanism. The portable telephone further comprises transmitting means and a transmission/reception circuit. In one embodiment of the present invention, the switching mechanism switches between an off-hook state and an on-hook state in conjunction with the removing and containing of the transducer from and into the main body of the telephone preferably through the delivery or taking up of the cord from and into the main body of the telephone. In a second embodiment, the portable telephone further includes a hinged lid which is rotatably supported to close an opening provided in the main body. The hinged lid preferably has a protuberance thereon so that when the hinged lid is opened and closed, the projection causes the switching mechanism to place the telephone in an off-hook and on-hook state, respectively.

Portable telephone having removable transducer

A timer apparatus is provided such that an operation of switches for setting a timer working hour makes it possible to memorize the timer working hour in a timer circuit and also to display this timer working hour in a digital time display device, and, to obtain an output when this timer working hour arrives. In this timer apparatus, the switches for setting a timer working hour are composed of twelve switches disposed at a positional relation corresponding to 1 o'clock to 12 o'clock on the dial plate of a clock.

Timer apparatus

In an FM receiver having a circuit including RF and IF amplifiers for receiving a selected FM broadcast signal, and an FM detector for converting the selected FM broadcast signal to an audio signal which is applied through an audio amplifier to a loudspeaker for operating the latter and thereby producing a corresponding audible sound; the presence of amplitude-modulated components in the selected FM broadcast signal, for example, by reason of the multi-path reception of such broadcast signal at the antenna, is made effective to produce low frequency signals, for example, by amplitude-detecting the output of the IF amplifier, and such low frequency signals are selectively applied to the audio amplifier in place of the audio signal from the FM detector so that the loudspeaker produces a characteristic sound for indicating the existence of multi-path reception. Preferably, the gain of at least the IF amplifier is lowered when detecting the existence of multi-path reception, for example, by selectively applying the low frequency signals through a smoothing circuit to the IF amplifier as an automatic gain control signal for the latter, so that the limiter effect of the circuit for receiving a selected FM broadcast signal will not preclude the amplitude-detection of the IF amplifier output when the selected FM broadcast signal is at a high level.

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Tokyo, Japan

Hiroshi Furuno