Patent ID: 8675781

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a plurality of input terminals, each input terminal receiving RF signals within a first predetermined portion of a predetermined frequency range; and providing a plurality of RF processing circuits connected to the plurality of input terminals, each RF processing circuit performing a predetermined processing function on a second predetermined portion of the predetermined frequency range, wherein each of the plurality of second predetermined portions of the predetermined frequency range comprise a first predetermined sub-set of frequencies that are the same as a second predetermined sub-set of frequencies within another one of the plurality of second predetermined frequency ranges, providing the plurality of RF processing circuits comprises providing a direct-conversion receiver as one of the plurality of RF processing circuits, the direct-conversion receiver operating with a local oscillator having a frequency approximately the same as the centre frequency of the second predetermined portion of the predetermined frequency range associated with the one of the plurality of RF processing circuits, and another RF processing circuit of the plurality of RF processing circuits at least one of: down-converts and up-converts the associated second predetermined portion of the predetermined frequency range to an intermediate frequency that lies within the second predetermined portion of the predetermined frequency range of the direct-conversion receiver; and down-converts and up-converts a plurality of subsets of the associated second predetermined portion of the predetermined frequency range to a plurality of intermediate frequencies that lie within the second predetermined portion of the predetermined frequency range of the direct-conversion receiver.