Patent ID: 7089026

Claim:
In a trunked radio communications system operating in the 800 MHz spectrum wherein the trunked radio communications system comprises at least one site, at least one control channel, at least one voice channel, and a plurality of receiving devices, a method for determining a control channel, the method comprising the steps of: at a receiving device in the trunked radio communications system: retrieving a first frequency, wherein the first frequency relates to a frequency in the 800 MHz spectrum; tuning to about the first frequency; tuning to about a second frequency wherein the second frequency is a channel separation from the first frequency, wherein the channel separation relates to a value of 12.5 kHz, if no control channel messages are decoded at the first frequency; and iteratively incrementing the second frequency by the channel separation, if no control channel messages are decoded at the second frequency until the second frequency reaches an end of band frequency for the trunked radio communications system, wherein the control channel messages are defined by Motorola's 3600-baud radio trunking protocol.