Abstract

In a battery powered radio paging receiver, a battery saving method extends battery life and prevents the loss of messages stored in volatile random access memory. Upon receipt of a message, a plurality of alerting devices (vibrators, LCD back-lights, LED's and audio alert tone generators) are sequentially activated. Before each device is activated, however, the battery voltage is checked to determine if sufficient charge remains to power the alerting device without dropping the battery voltage below the minimum requirement for retaining information in the memory. If an alerting device is activated, the battery voltage is repeatedly checked and if it drops below a threshold level, the device is deactivated. If the alerting device is an escalating volume audio alert tone generator and the battery voltage is below a threshold voltage, the volume of the generator is restricted to its lower volume range. The received message is also checked to determine if it has a priority status. If the message is a priority message, all alerting devices are activated, regardless of the battery voltage.