Patent ID: 7593372

Claim:
A method of scanning a scan channel on a radio device during activity on a time division multiple access (TDMA) non-scan channel, the TDMA non-scan channel in a radio frequency (RF) carrier signal carrying periodic frames of a plurality of slots, the slots carrying respective TDMA channels, the method comprising: switching from the TDMA non-scan channel to the RF carrier signal frequency of the scan channel; in response to determining that the scan channel is unmarked performing an inspection of activity on the scan channel in order to determine whether activity on the scan channel is addressed to the radio device, and marking the scan channel when activity on the scan channel is not addressed to the radio device; determining whether the scan channel is active in response to determining that the scan channel is marked; unmarking the scan channel in response to determining that the scan channel is not active; and switching to the RF carrier signal of the TDMA non-scan channel; wherein the timing of the switching between the RF carrier signal frequency of the scan channel and the RF carrier signal of the non-scan channel is dependent on the timing of the designated slots of the non-scan channel.