Patent ID: 8792589

Claim:
A method of determining whether a TV Band channel is available for use by a TV Band device, comprising: tuning to the TV Band channel; down-converting a radio frequency signal received on the TV Band channel to yield a down-converted signal; performing a predetermined number of Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) of the down-converted signal and accumulating an energy of respective bins associated with the respective FFTs; selecting a predetermined number of FFT bins centered at a mandated location of an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) pilot in the TV Band channel; analyzing the selected FFT bins to determine if an energy spike is present in any one of the selected FFT bins; if an energy spike is not present in any one of the selected FFT bins, declaring the TV Band channel available for use by the TV Band device; else further down-converting the radio frequency signal to a baseband signal and analyzing the baseband signal in the time domain to determine if the baseband signal contains a DTV field-sync or a DTV segment-sync; else correlating the baseband signal with a predetermined waveform known to be broadcast by wireless microphone sites, and if there is a good level of correlation, declaring the TV Band channel in use by a wireless microphone; else declaring the TV Band channel available for use by the TV Band device.