Portable radio terminal and AFC control method

1. A portable radio terminal for realizing automatic frequency control (AFC) for automatically controlling an oscillation frequency of an oscillator, comprising:

means for detecting whether a frequency shift value in a received signal is greater than a frequency shift threshold;

means for setting, if the frequency shift value in the received signal is greater than or equal to the frequency shift threshold and a current AFC intermittent operation performing period is greater than a minimum threshold period, an AFC intermittent operation performing period to a first value less than the current AFC intermittent operation performing period; and

means for setting, if the frequency shift value in the received signal is less than the frequency shift threshold and the current AFC intermittent operation performing period is greater than a maximum threshold period, an AFC intermittent operation performing period to a second value greater than the current AFC intermittent operation performing period,

wherein the maximum threshold period is greater than the minimum threshold period.

2. The portable radio terminal according to claim 1 , wherein, if the frequency shift value in the received signal as detected by the detecting means is less than the frequency shift threshold and the current AFC intermittent operation performing period is greater than the maximum threshold period, an AFC intermittent operation performing period for a next period is maintained by the setting means at a value corresponding to the current AFC intermittent operation performing period.

3. The portable radio terminal according to claim 1 , wherein, if the frequency shift value in the received signal as detected by the detecting means is greater than the frequency shift threshold and the current AFC intermittent operation performing period is less than the minimum threshold period, an AFC intermittent operation performing period for a next period is maintained by the setting means at a value corresponding to the current AFC intermittent operation performing period.

4. The portable radio terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the first value corresponds to one-half the current AFC intermittent operation performing period, and wherein the second value corresponds to twice the current AFC intermittent operation performing period.

5. A portable radio terminal for realizing automatic frequency control (AFC) for automatically controlling an oscillation frequency of an oscillator, comprising:

means for intermittently performing AFC operation;

means for detecting a frequency shift in a received signal;

means for detecting whether an out-of-sync state currently exists for the portable radio terminal;

means for determining whether the received signal can be correctly decoded; and

means for performing an AFC operation at a next intermittent time period based on the detected frequency shift only when both: a) the out-of-sync state is detected to currently exist for the portable radio terminal, and b) the received signal is determined to be correctly decoded,

wherein the AFC operation is not performed at the next intermittent time period when the out-of-sync state is not detected to currently exist for the portable radio terminal or when the received signal is not determined to be correctly decoded.

6. The portable radio terminal according to claim 5 , further comprising a timer,

wherein, when the detecting means detects that an out-of-sync state does not currently exist for the portable radio terminal, the timer is started and when the timer reaches a predetermined count, the detecting means is enabled again to detect if an out-of-sync state currently exists for the portable radio terminal,

wherein no AFC operation is performed while the timer is counting up to the predetermined count.