Adjustable auxiliary and emergency antenna
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsIgal Kotzer, Tal Piterman, Tony Eyal Naim, Aviv Zandany
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A communications system including a telescopic antenna, a deployment motor configured to apply an extension force to the telescopic antenna for extending the telescopic antenna in response to a communications frequency, a transceiver for transmitting a transmit signal at the communications frequency, and a signal meter for determining the magnitude of a return signal from the telescopic antenna received in response to the transmission of the transmit signal and wherein the deployment motor is further configured to adjust an extension of the telescopic antenna in response to the magnitude of the return signal.
Claims20
A communications system comprising:
- a telescopic antenna;
- a deployment motor configured to apply an extension force to the telescopic antenna for extending the telescopic antenna in response to a communications frequency;
- a transceiver for transmitting a transmit signal at the communications frequency;
- a signal meter for determining a magnitude of a return signal from the telescopic antenna received in response to a transmission of the transmit signal and wherein the deployment motor is further configured to adjust an extension of the telescopic antenna in response to the magnitude of the return signal;
- and
- an accelerometer for detecting a change in acceleration of a vehicle and wherein the deployment motor is configured to apply the extension force to the telescopic antenna and the transceiver is configured for transmitting the transmit signal in response to the change in acceleration exceeding a threshold value.
A method of configuring a communications system comprising:
- determining a communications frequency in response to request to perform a communication task;
- deploying a telescopic antenna to length equal to a quarter wavelength of the communications frequency;
- transmitting a weak transmission signal at the communications frequency;
- determining a magnitude of a return signal received in response to a transmission of the weak transmission signal;
- adjusting a length of the telescopic antenna in response to the magnitude of the return signal;
- and
- transmitting a communications signal at the communications frequency via the telescopic antenna corresponding to the communication task.
A vehicle communications system comprising:
- a vehicle processor for generating a request for an auxiliary communications task;
- a communications processor for determining a communications frequency in response to the request and for generating an antenna deployment control signal in response to the communications frequency;
- a deployment controller for extending a telescopic antenna to a length of one quarter of a wavelength of the communications frequency in response to the antenna deployment control signal;
- a transceiver for coupling a weak transmit signal to the telescopic antenna in response to a first transmit control signal generated by the communications processor in response to the extending of the telescopic antenna;
- and
- a voltage standing wave ratio meter for determining a magnitude of a return signal from the telescopic antenna in response to the weak transmit signal, the voltage standing wave ratio meter being further operative to couple a data indicative of the magnitude to the communications processor, wherein the communications processor is further operative to generate an antenna adjustment control signal in response to the magnitude and to couple the antenna adjustment control signal to the deployment controller and wherein the deployment controller is further operative to adjust a length of the telescopic antenna in response to the antenna adjustment control signal, and wherein the transceiver is further operative to couple a communications signal at the communications frequency to the telescopic antenna in response to the magnitude being less than a threshold magnitude.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.