Minimum shift keyed (msk) phase measurement device

Claim 1

A minimum shift keyed phase measurement device comprising: a source of incoming, phase ambiguous minimum shift keyed signals, said signals having various information rates; means for generating a specified and selectable information rate, said information rate generating means having an output of unsynchronized minimum shift keyed signals; means for synchronizing, at the beginning of an information interval, the phase of one of said output signals of said information rate generating means with the phase of said incoming minimum shift keyed signal by producing a synchronous correction signal representative of the phase difference between said output of said information rate generating means and said incoming minimum shift keyed signals, said synchronizing means using this synchronous correction signal to adjust the output of said informatioN rate generating means so as to be in phase synchronization with said incoming minimum shift keyed signal at the beginning of an information interval; and means for measuring the phase difference between said synchronized output of said information rate generating means and said incoming minimum shift keyed signal throughout the duration of said information interval, wherein said phase difference measurement means comprises: means for determining the beginning of an information interval of said incoming minimum shift keyed signal and said generated information rate signal; means for starting the phase measurement; means for stopping the phase measurement; and means for generating a pulse train responsive to said start and stop phase count whereby the phase measurement is represented by the number of pulses accumulated after the beginning of an information interval and between said start phase count signal and said stop phase count signal.