Patent ID: 7340279

Claim:
An apparatus for communicating, comprising: means for forming a tracking beam to cover a region, wherein the formation of the tracking beam comprises receiving energy through a plurality of spatially separated elements, applying a weight to the received energy from each of the elements, and combining the weighted energy; means for receiving and tracking a signal in the region using at least one tracking beam; means for forming a searching beam to received a detected signal, wherein the formation of the searching beam comprises receiving the energy through a second plurality of spatially separated elements, applying a second weight to the received energy from each of the second plurality of elements, wherein the second weight applied to the received energy from each of the second plurality of elements is different; and combining the second weighted energy, the second weight being a function of the weight applied to form the tracking beams; means for tracking the signal by adjusting the second weight applied to the received energy from each of the second plurality of elements, wherein the tracking of the signal comprises moving the searching beam to a plurality of locations by adjusting the second weight applied to the received energy from each of the second plurality of elements, and fixing the searching beam in the location having the highest energy level.