APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING DIGITAL DATA OVER A RADIO COMMUNICATIONS CHANNEL

A digital radio RF signalling protocol communicates either digitized voice or digital data signals and indicates the type of information being communicated to the receiver. Multiple repeats of control signals are provided for face protection and to ensure correct receipt even under adverse communications channel conditions. When the destination transceiver receives a transmitted digital data burst from the transmitter, the destination transceiver transmits a responsive acknowledge message and may specify in the acknowledge message which portions of the received message were received incorrectly and should be retransmitted by the originating transceiver. The originating transceiver determines the contents of subsequently-transmitted data burst based upon the information it receives from the destination transceiver by way of the acknowledge message. As deleterious phenomena (e.g., noise and/or fading) degrade communcations channel quality, the acknowledge message handshaking causes the originating transceiver to repeat incorrectly received data packets until the destination transceiver finally receives those data packets correctly.