Abstract: A portable stand having retractable arms extending from vertically-extending central trunk is described. The arms when deployed are at least slightly upwardly angled so that a baseball player can slide his glove, his hat and his batting helmet there over to store them when not in use. Typically, enough arms are provided along the trunk to permit an entire team to store their equipment on the stand with each player having his own arm to use. In variations, a topper is provided that has outwardly extending arms and spaced fingers that permit baseball bats to be hung there from. Variations can be used to store player equipment from other sports.

Abstract: Due to design constraints and installation variability, RFID interrogator antennas do not always function optimally across the entire channel on which they are intended to operate due to diminished antenna bandwidth. Techniques are described for selecting a sub-band of frequencies within the channel on which a particular RFID interrogator can be operated to enhance operating efficiency. These techniques include a VSWR measurement technique and a read/no read technique are disclosed for identifying a useful sub-band of frequencies. The operation of a reader/interrogator is then limited to an identified sub-band so that an RFID interrogator/tag system can be operated efficiently.