Patent ID: 7994935

Claim:
A transmitter for transmitting data representative of resource consumption from a utility meter to a remote location, said transmitter comprising: a processor, a memory, and transmitter circuitry wherein said transmitter circuitry is electrically associated with an antenna; wherein a plurality of transmitter-schedule-data sets are stored in said memory, said transmitter-schedule-data sets comprising transmit-time-data, transmit-power-data, and transmit-sequence-data; wherein one of said plurality of transmitter-schedule-data sets defines a transmitter mode comprising a transmit-power-data value that is between 1 mWatt and 100 mWatts inclusive and wherein one of said plurality of transmitter-schedule-data sets defines a transmitter mode comprising a transmit-power-data value that is between about 100 mW and 1 watt; wherein said processor is further electrically associated with a data-source containing utility-data; wherein said processor is configured to track the passage of time and generate time-data; wherein said processor is further configured to use said time-data and said transmit-time-data to place said transmitter circuitry in at least one of a sleep-mode and a transmit-enabled mode; and wherein said processor is further configured to configure said transmitter circuitry to transmit a data-signal consistent with one of said plurality of transmitter-schedule-data sets.