Apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating entry of location information at a weather band radio or other receiving station

• US 20040235416A1
• Filed: 05/19/2003
• Published: 11/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Global Franchising Corp., Radioshack Online IPCO LLC
• Original Assignee: RadioShack Legacy Corporation
• Inventors: Chan, Edmond, Lam, Man Tai Vincent, Kwong, Sze Ming Patrick, Lam, Man Lung
• Granted Patent: US 7,130,600 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/3.04
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/28 Arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information

Abstract

Apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating personalization of a weather band radio that receives SAME messages broadcast by the NWR system. Alphanumeric indicators of locations are displayed upon a user display element. And, a listener of the radio enters, by way of a user input actuator, selection of selected geographical areas, identified by the alphanumeric indicators. The selected alphanumeric location is used to form a six-digit location code defined by the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). And, the code so-formed is used by the weather band radio, selectably to alert weather anomalies broadcast by the NWR system within the selected geographical area of interest.

Claims

1. In a receiving station that receives a signal having a digital component that identifies a weather anomaly and a coded identifier of a location with which the weather anomaly is associated, an improvement of apparatus for facilitating receiving station set-up by which to cause the receiving station to alert a user of the receiving station of reception of signals containing the digital component in which the location identified therein encompasses a selected area, said apparatus comprising:

an index formed of alphanumeric location indications indexed together with coded identifiers associated therewith; and

a selector coupled to said index, said selector selectably operable to select, at least a selected alphanumeric indication contained in said index, a corresponding, selected coded identifier associated with the selected alphanumeric location indication defining the location of which reception of a signal received at the receiving station, containing a coded identifier of values of the selected coded identifier, is to be alerted.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a user interface coupled to said index, said user interface having a user display for displaying, in human perceptible form, the alphanumeric location indications indexed at said index.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said user interface is further coupled to said selector and further has a user input actuator actuable by the user, and wherein selection made by said selector is further responsive to user actuation of the user input actuator.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said index is updateable, updates to said index selected by way of the user input actuator of said user interface.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the selection made by said selector is made of the alphanumeric location indications displayed upon the user display of said user interface.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said index is updateable, updates to said index effectuated by way of application of externally-generated update indicia applied to the receiving station.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the alphanumeric location indications indexed at said index comprise both first-level alphanumeric location indications and at least second-level alphanumeric location indications, the first-level alphanumeric location indications defining first geographical areas and the second-level alphanumeric location indications defining subsets of the first geographical location areas.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein selection made by said selector comprises selection both of a selected first-level alphanumeric location indication and a selected second-level alphanumeric location indication, the selected second-level alphanumeric location indication a subset of the selected first-level alphanumeric location indication.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the alphanumeric location indications indexed at said index further comprise third-level alphanumeric location indications, the third-level alphanumeric location indications forming sub-subsets of the first geographical areas.

10. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein selection made by said selector comprises selection of all of a selected first-level alphanumeric location indication, and a selected third level alphanumeric location indication, the selected second-level alphanumeric location indication a subset of the selected first level alphanumeric location indication, and the selected third-level alphanumeric location indication a subset of the selected second-level alphanumeric location indication.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the signal received by the receiving station is broadcast by a weather alerting authority, wherein the digital component of the signal comprises a Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) message, wherein the coded identity of the location comprises a Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)-formatted sequence, and wherein the first-level alphanumeric location indication, the second-level alphanumeric location indication, and the third-level alphanumeric location indication are of values that together form a selected FIPS-formatted sequence.

12. In a method of operating a receiving station that receives a signal having a digital component that identifies a weather anomaly and a coded identifier of a location with which the weather anomaly is associated, an improvement of a method for facilitating receiving station set-up by which to cause the receiving station to alert a user of the receiving station of reception of signals containing the digital component in which the location identified therein encompasses a selected area, said method comprising:

indexing together alphanumeric location indications and coded identifiers associated therewith to form an index; and

selecting at least a selected alphanumeric indication contained in the index formed during said operation of indexing, a corresponding, selected coded identifier associated with the selected alphanumeric location indication defining the location of which reception of a signal received at the receiving station, containing a coded identifier of values of the selected coded identifier, is to be alerted.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising the operation of selectably updating the index formed during said operation of indexing.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein selection made during said operation of selecting is user-initiated.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising the operation, subsequent to said operation of indexing, of displaying a list of the alphanumeric location indications and wherein selection made during said operation of selecting is made of the list displayed during said operation of displaying.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the selection made during said operation of selecting is made responsive to selected user actuation of a user actuator, said operation of selecting comprising actuating the user actuator.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the alphanumeric location indications indexed during said operation of indexing comprise both first-level alphanumeric location indications and at least second-level alphanumeric location indications, the first-level alphanumeric indications defining first geographical areas and the second-level alphanumeric location indications defining subsets of the first geographical location areas.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said operation of selecting comprises selecting both a selected first-level alphanumeric location indication and a selected second-level alphanumeric location indication.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the alphanumeric location indication further comprises third-level alphanumeric location indications, the third-level alphanumeric location indications forming subsets of the subsets of the geographical areas, and wherein said operation of selecting further comprises selecting a selected third-level alphanumeric location indication.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein selection made during said operation of selecting comprises selection both of a selected first-level alphanumeric location indication and a selected second-level alphanumeric location indication, the selected second-level alphanumeric location indication a subset of the selected first-level alphanumeric location indication.