Patent ID: 7729727

Claim:
A method of operating a radio base station node of a telecommunications system, the radio base station node having plural radio frequency (RF) transmission paths between a baseband transmitter of the radio base station node and an antenna system of the radio base station node, the method comprising: (1) providing a power modulation, wherein the power modulation is a decrease in RF transmission power, and wherein the power modulation occurs in RF transmission power occurs in conjunction with a standardized function, of signals applied by the baseband transmitter to the plural RF transmission paths; (2) making a comparison of a time of detection of the power modulation for a first of the plural RF transmission paths and a time of detection of the power modulation for a second of the plural RF transmission paths; (3) using the comparison of step (2) for adjusting timing of transmission of signals for the plural RF transmission paths for obtaining a desired time alignment for the plural RF transmission paths, wherein the desired time alignment is for the time of detection of the power modulation for the first of the plural RF transmission paths and the time of detection of the power modulation for the second of the plural RF transmission paths to be substantially equal to a calibrated differential alignment; and determining the calibrated differential alignments by performing the steps of: generating, at the baseband transmitter, test signals of a predetermined character; applying the test signals with plural test application timing differentials to the first of the plural RF transmission paths and the second of the plural RF transmission paths; using as the calibrated differential alignment a one of the plural test application timing differentials which produces a desired inter-path interaction of the test signals.