Abstract: An improved robber or solder thieving pad, parallelogram shaped, significantly reduces solder bridging in wave soldered multi leaded through hole or surface mounted components in a printed circuit board for different wave settings. The component leads are either parallel or perpendicular to the solder wave during the soldering process. In one embodiment, the parallelogram shaped solder thieving pad is disposed contiguous or adjacent to the through hole. In another embodiment, the parallelogram shaped solder thieving pad is spaced from a thin annular ring surrounding the through-hole. In still another embodiment, the pad may be linked to the ring by a thin connecting bridge. Dimensions of the solder thieving pad vary according to the component lead size, spacing, and number of rows.

Abstract: A tone receiver suitable for use in a telephone system and which adaptively narrows its amplitude sensitivity range defining valid tone signals on a per call basis in accordance with the amplitude of a first tone signal received on a call. The signal range adaptability improves signal echo rejection and spurious noise talkoff. A preferred embodiment is implemented by a programmed digital signal processor which increases the lower amplitude signal threshold in accordance with the amplitude of the first signal. An alternative embodiment adaptively attenuates the level of incoming signals before signal validation. A further improvement of both embodiments allows further amplitude range narrowing in response to any subsequent signal on a call which has an amplitude greater than that of any preceding signal in the call.