General Electric Company

Orion Industries, Ltd.

Mark M Sihlanick

Jeffrey S Childress

Samuel A Leslie

Michael W Evans

Michael W Smith

Arne B Bendixen

Peyton L Morgan, Iii

A system which improves coverage in overlapping coverage areas between two type-A or type-B cellular radio telephone systems is able to direct a subscriber unit in the overlapping coverage area to the home or primary system, thereby minimizing the subscriber unit's roaming-type expenses. The system includes a control channel receiver, a control unit, and a control channel transmitter/receiver pair, in combination with a transmit/receive antenna. The system transmits a control channel, which is associated with the home system, into the overlapping region. The control channel is intended to be the strongest channel in that region. Any subscriber units in the region associated with the home system which respond to that control channel will be directed to other control channels associated with the home system. Those subscriber units will receive service from the home system, as opposed to the foreign system which may provide other strong control channels in the overlapping coverage area.

Apparatus and method for preserving coverage in an overlapping coverage

An arrangement for establishing communication between a first mobile radio transceiver and a second mobile radio transceiver through a repeater over a radio frequency channel selected from a plurality of such channels. A repeater distinguishes between two-tone signalling sequences and four-tone signalling sequences by determining the arrival rate over some predefined interval of a received signalling sequence. The repeater transmits a busy signal to alert mobile stations seeking to acquire a channel that the repeater is busy. The repeater interrupts the transmitted busy signal during a portion of the four-tone signalling sequence but not the two-tone signalling sequence to help prevent two-tone mobile stations from falsing on four-tone signalling sequences. The arrangement is thus made compatible with both two-tone signalling and four-tone signalling formats. A calling mobile transceiver may specify the length of signalling transmitted by the repeater, so that the mobile transceiver can cause the repeater to transmit signalling for a duration longer than the mobile transceiver itself would require.

Radio trunking system with transceivers and repeaters using special

Growing community of inventors

Forest, VA, United States of America

Mark M Sihlanick