Mobile radio network for nationwide communications

A meteor burst master radio station for communicating with a plurality of mobile radio station units comprising:

• a master radio station having a plurality of azimuth transmit sectors at one master radio station site for transmitting digital messages to said mobile radio units and receiving digital messages in a plurality of azimuth receive sectors, said station originating in all of said transmit sectors a polling command identifying each mobile radio unit for which a message is to be transmitted;
• a plurality of receive sectors greater in number than said transmit sectors at aid one master radio station site for receiving incoming messages from said mobile radio units, said receive sectors processing and decoding each received message;
• a master station controller connected to route outbound messages to one or more of said azimuth transmit sectors, and connected to each of said receive sectors for receiving incoming messages identifying which of said receive sectors contains each incoming message, said master station controller including a host computer programmed to poll each of said mobile radio units in a plurality of transmit sectors for which a digital message is destined to detect the presence of an acknowledge signal sent by said mobile radio units, and to send each digital outbound message to said acknowledging mobile radio station in only one of said transmit sectors which contains an identified receive sector.

A meteor burst communication system for communicating with a plurality of mobile radio stations comprising:

• a master transmit station for composing digital data messages, said master station including a transmitting antenna array forming a plurality of transmit sectors comprising individual azimuth sectors which form a composite transmit pattern;
• a plurality of transmitters connected to said transmitting antenna array, each forming with said array a separate transmit sector, and having an input for receiving a digital message for transmission over said sector;
• a master receive station located at said transmit station, said receive station including a receiving antenna array forming a plurality of receive sectors greater in number than said transmit sectors, forming a composite receive pattern coextensive with said composite transmit pattern;
• a plurality of receivers connected to said receiving antenna array for receiving radio frequency signals in an individual receive sector, and demodulating data contained in said radio frequency signals;
• and,
• a host computer connected to supply digital messages for transmission to said mobile radio stations and receive digital messages from said receivers, said host computer transmitting messages to said mobile radio stations over a transmit sector containing a mobile station identified to receive a particular message, and transmitting over the transmit sectors containing other mobile radio stations' messages destined for said other stations.