Abstract: Application of power to a transmitter in a messaging device is preceded by measuring a quality of at least one base station down-link signal received by a receiver in the device, and producing a transmit threshold signal when the measured signal quality corresponds to a substantial likelihood of accurate detection by a base station of an up-link signal to be transmitted from the device. The device transmitter is powered on only if the transmit threshold signal is present over a given interval prior to a transmitter operation. Thus, a relatively low-power battery and small antenna can be used effectively by the device, and its overall size kept at a minimum.

Abstract: A radio communication device (100) for displaying information about a signal includes a display (120) for presenting the information. A measurer (110) measures signal quality of the signal received by the radio communication device (100), and an entry element (145) determines from the signal quality whether the radio communication device (100) is out of range. The entry element (145) then stores times of out-of-range conditions in a history table (130). A report element (150) can be activated to drive the display (120) for presentation of the times of the out-of-range conditions. The report element (150) can, for instance, be activated by the user, at periodic times, at specified times, or in response to specific events.

Abstract: In a communication system that transmits diversity messages (an original message followed by one or more copies thereof), a selective call receiver (10) which receives an original message and one or more copies will display only one of the received messages and discard the others without displaying them. This is accomplished by storing in a memory (30) the identification tag of the message that was displayed and deleted. The identical identification tags carried by later copies of the same message are compared to the stored identification tag. If a match is found, this indicates that an earlier version of the received message has already been displayed and deleted, whereupon the received copy is discarded.