JP7225922B2 - wireless communication device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a wireless communication device with spectrum analyzer function.

A stationary radio communication device used for amateur radio is equipped with a spectrum analyzer function that displays a bandscope that indicates the signal strength of a predetermined frequency band by means of a spectrum. An amateur radio user can confirm a receivable signal transmitted by another user's call from the display of the bandscope.

JP 2015-29247 A JP 2016-127406 A

The frequency bands that can be used by amateur radio are determined by the band plan. In conventional radios, the bandscope may be displayed including frequency bands not made available by the band plan. Since frequency bands that are not available on the display of the bandscope do not need to be displayed, they impose an extra processing load on the wireless communication device. There is a demand for a wireless communication device that can reduce the processing load when displaying a band scope.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication device capable of reducing the processing load when displaying a band scope.

The present invention includes a call reception unit used for communication, a mode selection unit for selecting a radio wave mode of radio waves received at a communication frequency used by the call reception unit, a display unit for displaying information related to communication, a spectrum analyzer receiving unit for receiving radio waves of each frequency in a predetermined frequency band and measuring signal strength; a control unit for displaying a band scope showing the signal strength of each frequency as a spectrum on the display unit; a storage unit that stores unusable bands for each radio mode in a plurality of radio modes , wherein the control unit selects the radio mode selected by the mode selection unit and the mode Determining whether the predetermined frequency band includes an unusable band based on the unusable band corresponding to the radio mode selected by the selection unit, and determining whether the predetermined frequency band includes the unusable band when including, controlling to mask the display of the unusable band included in the predetermined frequency band in the band scope of the display unit with a predetermined image, and displaying the spectrum with the masked unusable band. Provide a wireless communication device that does not perform related processing.

According to the wireless communication device of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the processing load when displaying the band scope.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a wireless communicator in one embodiment; FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a first example of a band plan; FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a second example of a band plan; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state in which a band scope of a first display example is displayed on a liquid crystal panel included in the wireless communication device of one embodiment; FIG. 3B is a diagram showing a state in which a masking image is displayed in an unusable band that cannot be used by amateur radio in the band scope of the first display example shown in FIG. 3A; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state in which a bandscope of a second display example is displayed on the liquid crystal panel included in the wireless communication device of one embodiment; FIG. 4B is a diagram showing a state in which a masking image is displayed in an unusable band that cannot be used by amateur radio in the band scope of the second display example shown in FIG. 4A; 4 is a flow chart showing the operation of the wireless communication device of one embodiment; 6 is a flow chart showing processing of channel scanning with reference to masking information in the wireless communication device of one embodiment.

A wireless communication device according to one embodiment will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communicator 100 in one embodiment. In FIG. 1 , the control unit 10 controls the radio communication device 100 as a whole. The control unit 10 can be configured by a microcomputer. Antenna 11 receives radio waves and supplies a received signal to signal strength measurement receiving section 12 and call receiving section 17 . The signal strength measurement receiver 12 sequentially changes the measurement frequency within a predetermined frequency band (first frequency band), receives radio waves, and detects signals of each frequency. A frequency band is, for example, 50 kHz.

The signal strength measuring unit 13 measures the signal strength of each frequency. For example, the signal strength measurement unit 13 measures the signal strength at 640 frequencies within the frequency band of 50 kHz every 125 ms. Signal strength data indicating the signal strength measured by the signal strength measuring unit 13 is temporarily stored in the signal strength storage unit 14 . The signal strength storage unit 14 stores not only the latest signal strength data but also signal strength data for, for example, 3 seconds including the latest signal strength data. Signal strength data is supplied to the control unit 10 .

As shown in FIG. 1, the signal strength measurement receiving section 12, the signal strength measuring section 13, and the signal strength storage section 14 are independent receiving sections SR that are not used in communication of the wireless communication device 100. FIG. The receiver SR is a spectrum analyzer receiver for displaying a bandscope, which will be described later.

The signal strength measurement unit 13 may not measure the signal strength of the reception frequency in a specific frequency band under the control of the control unit 10 . In this case, the signal strength storage unit 14 stores signal strength data in frequency bands excluding frequency bands for which the signal strength measurement unit 13 does not measure signal strength.

The communication transmitter 15 modulates the audio signal from the microphone 16 and transmits it from the antenna 11 . The call reception unit 17 demodulates the signal of the selected reception frequency among the signals received from the antenna 11 . The speaker 18 outputs the sound demodulated by the call receiving section 17 . When communication is performed by the half-duplex communication method, only one of the call transmitter 15 and the call receiver 17 operates and the other does not operate based on control by the control unit 10 .

By turning the tuning knob 20 leftward or rightward, the user can change the transmission frequency in the call transmission section 15 or the reception frequency in the call reception section 17 . The amount of leftward or rightward rotation of the tuning knob 20 is encoded by the encoder 19 and replaced with the amount of change in the reception frequency. The control unit 10 changes the transmission frequency in the call transmission unit 15 or the reception frequency in the call reception unit 17 according to the amount of change in the reception frequency from the encoder 19 . In this way, the transmission frequency in the call transmitter 15 is set, and the reception frequency in the call receiver 17 is set. By operating the tuning knob 20, the control unit 10 sets the communication frequency to be used for communication by the transmission unit 15 for communication or the reception unit 17 for communication.

A liquid crystal panel 22 is connected to the control section 10 via a liquid crystal drive section 21 . The liquid crystal driving section 21 has a character generator that causes the liquid crystal panel 22 to display characters, graphics, or the like. The liquid crystal driving section 21 has a frame buffer 210 and drives the liquid crystal panel 22 so as to display various information such as a bandscope on the liquid crystal panel 22 . Frame buffer 210 can be configured with a video RAM. The liquid crystal panel 22 is an example of a display section, and the display section may be another display panel such as an organic EL panel. The display unit displays information related to communication by the wireless communication device 100 in addition to the display of the bandscope.

An operation unit 23 is connected to the control unit 10 . The operation unit 23 is a plurality of operation buttons provided on the housing of the wireless communication device 100 . The operation unit 23 has a mode selection unit 230 for selecting the radio wave mode of the communication frequency used by the call transmission unit 15 or the call reception unit 17 . Radio wave modes that the wireless communication device 100 uses for transmitting and receiving audio signals include various modes such as AM (Amplitude Modulation) mode, FM (Frequency Modulation) mode, SSB (Single Side Band) mode, and CW (Continuous Wave) mode. be. The SSB mode includes a USB (Upper Side Band) mode and an LSB (Lower Side Band) mode.

Furthermore, a non-volatile memory 24, which is an example of a storage unit, is connected to the control unit 10. FIG. The nonvolatile memory 24 is, for example, an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). The nonvolatile memory 24 stores band plan information and masking information. The band plan information is information indicating frequency bands that can be used for amateur radio, corresponding to each radio wave mode. Masking information will be described later.

FIG. 2A shows the usable frequency band of the 3.8 MHz band in CW mode, which is the first example of the band plan. 3702 kHz to 3716 kHz, 3745 kHz to 3770 kHz, and 3791 kHz to 3805 kHz are usable frequency bands, and frequency bands other than these bands are frequency bands that cannot be used by amateur radio (hereinafter referred to as unusable bands).

FIG. 2B shows the usable frequency band of the 28 MHz band, which is the second example of the band plan. 28.20 MHz to 29.00 MHz can be used in USB mode, and 29.00 MHz to 29.30 MHz can be used in AM or FM mode. 2A and 2B are examples for understanding the band plan, and do not necessarily show the actual band plan.

FIG. 3A shows a bandscope of a first display example displayed on the liquid crystal panel 22. FIG. The liquid crystal panel 22 displays a bandscope 221 , a radio wave mode 222 set to the call receiver 17 , and a reception frequency 223 set to the call receiver 17 . Here, radio wave mode 222 indicates the USB mode, and reception frequency 223 indicates 14.100000 MHz. In the first display example shown in FIG. 3A, the display area of the band scope 221 is a spectrum scope 2211 that displays the spectrum with the frequency on the horizontal axis and the signal intensity on the vertical axis. The spectrum shown in FIG. 3A is displayed based on the latest signal strength data.

In FIG. 1 , the control unit 10 supplies the latest signal strength data supplied from the signal strength storage unit 14 to the liquid crystal driving unit 21 . The signal strength data is temporarily held in frame buffer 210 . The liquid crystal driving section 21 drives the liquid crystal panel 22 to display the signal intensity data held in the frame buffer 210 on the liquid crystal panel 22 . The control unit 10, the signal strength measurement receiving unit 12, the signal strength measurement unit 13, the signal strength storage unit 14, the liquid crystal driving unit 21, and the liquid crystal panel 22 are configured to measure the signal strength of a predetermined frequency band as a spectrum. A spectrum analyzer function part SA that performs a spectrum analyzer function to display is configured. The signal strength at each frequency is displayed in the region of the bandscope 221 (spectrum scope 2211) of the liquid crystal panel 22 by the spectrum analyzer function.

The non-volatile memory 24 stores a plurality of unusable bands as masking information. The masking information is information indicating the lower limit frequency and upper limit frequency of the frequency band to be masked in the bandscope 221 . The non-volatile memory 24 stores the unusable band corresponding to the radio wave mode as masking information.

As shown in FIG. 2B, if the radio mode set by mode selection unit 230 is USB mode, the frequency band used in AM mode or FM mode is an unusable band. If the radio wave mode set by the mode selection unit 230 is the AM mode or the FM mode, the frequency band used in the USB mode is an unusable band. The non-volatile memory 24 stores an unusable band corresponding to the radio wave mode as masking information.

It is assumed that the frequency band to be masked in the band scope 221 is set in the nonvolatile memory 24 based on the band plan information, for example, 10.150000 MHz to 14.000000 MHz. Based on the band plan information stored in the nonvolatile memory 24, the control unit 10 can store the unusable band in the nonvolatile memory 24 as masking information.

The unusable band need not be set based on amateur radio band plan information, and may be set based on, for example, a broadcasting frequency band defined by the International Telecommunications Convention. Alternatively, the user may operate the operation unit 23 to set the frequency band to be masked. That is, the unusable band is a predetermined frequency band (second frequency band), and the unusable band is stored in the nonvolatile memory 24 as masking information.

In the frequency band shown in FIG. 3A, since the frequency band below 14.000000 MHz is set as the frequency band to be masked, as shown in FIG. The liquid crystal driver 21 is controlled to display the masking image 224 in the range of 0.000 MHz. Masking image 224 may be a single image of a predetermined color. A masking image 224 can be displayed on the bandscope 221 by the control unit 10 writing masking image data consisting of a single image superimposed on the bandscope 221 to the frame buffer 210 .

Since the masking image 224 is displayed on the band scope 221 and the spectrum of the spectrum scope 2211 is hidden, the user can easily recognize that the frequency band below 14.000 MHz is the unusable band. can. 3A in which the masking image 224 is not displayed and the display mode in which the masking image 224 is displayed as shown in FIG. 3B can be selected by operating the operation unit 23.

Since the masking image 224 allows the user to easily recognize the unusable band, there is no need to be particularly conscious of the band plan. Therefore, the wireless communication device 100 is excellent in usability.

It is not necessary to display the spectrum in the frequency band where the masking image 224 is displayed. Therefore, the control unit 10 may stop the processing related to spectrum display in the frequency band where the masking image 224 is displayed. Specifically, the control unit 10 may stop generating spectrum waveform data in the frequency band where the masking image 224 is displayed. Further, the control unit 10 may cause the signal strength measurement unit 13 to stop measuring the signal strength in the frequency band where the masking image 224 is displayed. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the processing required to display the bandscope, and there is also a secondary effect that the speed of displaying the spectrum can be improved.

FIG. 4A shows a bandscope of a second display example displayed on the liquid crystal panel 22 . A band scope 221 , a radio wave mode 222 , and a reception frequency 223 are displayed on the liquid crystal panel 22 . Here, radio wave mode 222 indicates CW mode, and reception frequency 223 indicates 7.020000 MHz. In the example shown in FIG. 4A, the bandscope 221 includes a spectrum scope 2211 and a waterfall 2212 showing temporal changes in signal strength. Waterfall 2212 is displayed based on 3 seconds of signal strength data including the most recent signal strength data.

Assume that the masking information stored in the non-volatile memory 24 is set so that frequencies below 7.014 MHz and above 7.029 MHz are the frequency bands to be masked in the bandscope 221 . Even if the band scope 221 is in the display mode including the spectrum scope 2211 and the waterfall 2212, the masking image 224 is displayed in the frequency bands below 7.014 MHz and above 7.029 MHz as shown in FIG. 4B. Note that FIGS. 3B and 4B show display examples of the masking image 224, and do not necessarily show an unusable band for amateur radio.

As shown in FIG. 2B, consider a case where a frequency band that can be used in the USB mode is set and the USB mode is set by the mode selection unit 230 . In this case, the control unit 10 may set the frequency band of 29.00 MHz to 29.30 MHz, which is the frequency band of the unusable radio mode, as the frequency band to be masked, corresponding to the set radio mode.

The operation of the wireless communication device 100 will be explained again using the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, when the process is started, the control unit 10 determines whether or not to turn on the band scope 221 in step S1. If the band scope 221 is set to be displayed when the power of the wireless communication device 100 is turned on, or if an instruction to display the band scope 221 is given by operating the operation unit 23, the control unit 10 turns on the band scope 221 (YES ). If the band scope 221 is not turned on (NO), the control unit 10 repeats the process of step S1.

When the band scope 221 is turned on, the control unit 10 increases the frequency from the lowest frequency (fmin) to the highest frequency (fmax) of the band scope 221 by a predetermined frequency unit, and adjusts the reception frequency of the signal strength measurement receiving unit 12. , and the loop of steps S2 to S6 is executed.

In step S2, the control unit 10 determines whether or not the frequency is within the frequency band to be masked based on the masking information. If the frequency is not within the frequency band to be masked (NO), the control unit 10 causes the signal strength measurement unit 13 to measure the signal strength of the signal received by the signal strength measurement reception unit 12 in step S3, and In S4, signal strength data is stored in the signal strength storage unit 14 based on the measured signal strength. The controller 10 changes the reception frequency of the signal strength measurement receiver 12 in step S5.

If the frequency is within the frequency band to be masked in step S2 (YES), the control unit 10 turns on the display of the masking image 224 in step S6, and proceeds to step S5.

Through the loop of steps S2 to S6 described above, the signal strength is measured in the bandscope 221 in the frequency band where masking is unnecessary, and the signal strength data is stored in the signal strength storage unit 14. In the frequency band to be masked, the masking image 224 is set to display When the masking image 224 is set to be displayed in the frequency band to be masked, the control section 10 generates masking image data corresponding to the frequency band to be masked.

The control unit 10 writes the signal intensity data or the signal intensity data and the masking image data to the frame buffer 210 in step S7. In step S<b>8 , the liquid crystal driving section 21 reads out the signal strength data or the signal strength data and the masking image data written in the frame buffer 210 and causes the liquid crystal panel 22 to display it.

In step S9, the control unit 10 determines whether or not the wireless communication device 100 is powered off. If the wireless communication device 100 is not powered off (NO), the control unit 10 repeats the processing from step S1. If the wireless communication device 100 is powered off (YES), the control unit 10 terminates the process. In the frequency band to be masked, processing related to spectrum display is unnecessary, so the processing load when displaying the band scope is reduced.

The frequency band masked by the band scope 221 is preferably prohibited from being set as a communication frequency used for communication by the communication transmitter 15 . Since the frequency bands permitted for amateur radio equipment are specified in each country, the product is usually set at the shipping stage so that it cannot transmit in any frequency band other than the permitted frequency bands for each country. However, the radio mode is arbitrary, and the radio mode that can be used is any radio mode that is legally permitted for the entire wireless communication equipment (radio station) including the wireless communication device. is only a recommended plan for operation.

Therefore, since transmission in radio modes that are not customarily used interferes with other communications, a masked frequency band is set according to the radio mode, and unusable frequency bands are provided to wireless communication device users. It is desirable to be aware of it and to prohibit its transmission.

For example, in half-duplex communication using a repeater (relay station), the uplink frequency band and the downlink frequency band are different. , the communication frequency (receiving frequency) set in the call reception unit 17 is the downlink frequency. In this case, transmission on frequencies within the downlink frequency band would cause interference, so it is desirable to use a frequency band in which transmission is prohibited.

In operation of half-duplex communication using the same frequency, reception in the frequency band in which transmission is prohibited is meaningless. may The detection of the received signal may be stopped by any method such as turning off the power of the call reception unit 17, stopping the demodulation process, muting the audio output, or the like.

As described above, the control unit 10 may prohibit the transmission of the call transmission unit 15 or stop the detection of the reception signal of the call reception unit 17 based on the masking information.

When the communication frequency of the call transmission unit 15 or the call reception unit 17 is changed by operating the tuning knob 20, the control unit 10 may prevent the communication frequency from entering the frequency band to be masked. For example, when the user operates the tuning knob 20 to increase the communication frequency and the communication frequency reaches the lower end of the frequency band to be masked, even if the tuning knob 20 is further operated to increase the communication frequency, the control The unit 10 does not increase the communication frequency any more. The same is true when the communication frequency is lowered.

In addition, when the communication frequency can be set on both sides of the frequency band to be masked, when the communication frequency is changed by operating the tuning knob 20, the control unit 10 moves from the lower end to the upper end of the frequency band to be masked, Alternatively, communication frequencies may be skipped from the upper end to the lower end. From the above, when the user operates the wireless communication device 100 to receive an audio signal, the communication frequency set in the call transmitter 15 or the call receiver 17 is prevented from entering the frequency band to be masked. can do.

As described above, the control unit 10 may prohibit setting of the communication frequency of the call transmission unit 15 or the call reception unit 17 based on the masking information.

Also, the operation for setting the communication frequency may be applied to other than the operation of the tuning knob 20 .

The masking information may be referred to when performing channel scanning processing for searching for communication frequencies received by the call reception unit 17 . FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing channel scanning processing with reference to masking information.

In FIG. 6, the control unit 10 determines whether or not channel scanning has been turned on by operating the operation unit 23 in step S11. If the channel scan is not turned on (NO), the control section 10 repeats the process of step S11. If the channel scan is turned on (YES), the controller 10 starts the channel scan in step S12. When the channel scan is turned on, the control unit 10 starts sweeping the communication frequency in the call reception unit 17 .

In step S13, the control unit 10 determines whether or not the current communication frequency of the call reception unit 17 is within the frequency band to be masked. If the current communication frequency is not within the frequency band to be masked (NO), the control unit 10 measures the received signal strength based on the signal received by the call receiving unit 17 in step S14. In step S15, the control unit 10 determines whether or not a condition for stopping scanning is satisfied. The control unit 10 determines that the condition for stopping scanning is satisfied when the condition that the signal intensity is equal to or greater than a predetermined value is satisfied. If the scan stop condition is satisfied (YES), the control unit 10 terminates the process.

The conditions for stopping scanning may be other than those described above. Channel scanning, in which scanning is stopped when the signal strength is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, is intended to search for communication frequencies in use. For the purpose of searching for communication frequencies that are not in use, scanning may be stopped when the signal strength is equal to or less than a predetermined value.

If the current communication frequency is within the frequency band to be masked in step S13 (YES), and if the condition for stopping scanning is not satisfied in step S15 (NO), the control unit 10, in step S16, The frequency is changed and the process returns to step S13. With the above processing, the control unit 10 does not perform signal strength measurement processing in the unusable band, so that efficient processing can be performed without stopping scanning due to detection of a received signal within the frequency band to be masked. can.

In the processing shown in FIG. 6, the signal strength measurement within the frequency band to be masked is not performed during channel scanning, but the following may be performed. For example, in FIG. 2A, when the channel scan is performed in the direction of increasing the frequency only in the CW mode, 3716 KHz is the edge frequency of the frequency band to be masked by the channel scan. In this case, the frequency sweep may be skipped from 3716 KHz to 3745 KHz, which is the edge frequency of the next frequency band that should not be masked.

As described above, when using the wireless communication device of the present embodiment, the user can easily recognize whether the frequency band is usable and can prevent communication in the unusable band.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 control unit 12 signal strength measurement receiver 13 signal strength measurement unit 15 call transmission unit 14 signal strength storage unit 17 call reception unit 21 liquid crystal drive unit 22 liquid crystal panel (display unit)
23 operation unit 24 non-volatile memory (storage unit)
210 frame buffer 230 mode selection unit 100 wireless communication device SA spectrum analyzer function unit SR spectrum analyzer receiving unit

Claims (4)

a call reception unit used for communication;
a mode selection unit that selects a radio wave mode of radio waves received at the communication frequency used by the call reception unit;
a display unit that displays information related to communication;
a receiver for a spectrum analyzer that receives radio waves of each frequency in a predetermined frequency band and measures the signal strength;
a control unit that causes the display unit to display a band scope indicating the signal strength of each frequency as a spectrum;
a storage unit that stores unusable bands for each radio mode in a plurality of radio modes ;
with
The control unit
The predetermined frequency band is selected based on the radio mode selected by the mode selection unit and the unusable band stored in the storage unit and corresponding to the radio mode selected by the mode selection unit. Determine whether or not an unusable band is included,
when the predetermined frequency band includes an unusable band, controlling the display of the unusable band included in the predetermined frequency band in the band scope of the display unit to be masked with a predetermined image;
A wireless communication device that does not perform processing related to displaying the spectrum in the masked unusable band. 2. The radio according to claim 1, wherein when the unusable band in the display of the bandscope is masked with the predetermined image , the control unit does not generate spectrum waveform data in the unusable band. communicator. The control unit controls the spectrum analyzer receiving unit so as not to measure signal strength in the unusable band when the unusable band in the display of the bandscope is masked with the predetermined image. 3. The wireless communication device according to claim 1 or 2. The radio communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the storage unit stores an unusable band for each radio mode determined based on an amateur radio band plan.

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