Land-based wireless communications system having a scanned directional antenna

摘要

A radio communication system is disclosed which comprises a base station for transmitting and receiving signals to and from one or more remote stations. The base station is provided with at least one receive antenna coupled to a base station receiver. The receive antenna is provided with a directional pattern in a horizontal plane and a mechanism for steering the directional pattern azimuthly, until such time as a synchronization signal transmitted by a remote station located within the coverage area is received by the base station receiver. Upon detection of the synchronization signal, scanning of the receive antenna's pattern is stopped until such time as message information can be obtained from the remote station and forwarded to a particular destination requested by the remote station. Upon receiving the information, the base station will resume scanning of the antenna, and the information will be forwarded to its requested destination.