Patent ID: 8600371

Claim:
An apparatus for determining a health of a mobile radio-frequency transmitter, the apparatus comprising: a receiver for receiving a received signal responsive to a transmitted signal transmitted from the mobile transmitter, the transmitted signal transmitted during normal over-the-air operation of the mobile transmitter and not having known signal characteristics; a first element for determining a first signal parameters value of the received signal, the first signal parameter value responsive to signal power of the received signal; the first element for determining additional signal parameter values of the received signal; the transmitted signal and the received signal each including an identifier of the mobile transmitter, the identifier for linking the first signal parameter value and the additional signal parameter values with the mobile transmitter; and a second element for determining whether the first signal parameter value exceeds a predetermined value; if the first signal parameter value exceeds the predetermined value, the second element for determining a health of the mobile transmitter, the health responsive to a relationship between one or more of the additional signal parameter values and a respective specification value or a range of respective specification values for each one of the additional signal parameter values, wherein the respective specification value or the range of respective specification values are independent of distance and link quality between the mobile transmitter and the receiver.