Anything better than DECT...

[TonyK]

I live/work in a very large old Victorian mansion, i.e. lots of very thick stone walls, four floors etc etc. I have three DECT phones, two at one end and one at the other. they vary in cost from the cheapest, BT at about £75 & £100 to my own Samsung which was originally about £200 albeit a couple of years back.

Now in theory DECT is DECT and they should have an optimum range of 300m (yeah right!). The cheapest struggles to go 15m between 3 rooms. The middle one is a bit better, and the Samsung better still. But none of them will do the 50m between reception and office. When I bought them I tried numerous models and these we're the best at the time but that was 2 years back.

I did look at repeaters but each phone is actually on a different line so I think its getting a bit too complicated to extend the signal?

Has the technology improved or is there something better out there?

Ta

[mrcheerful]

There are super power phones out there, but they are illegal here. I searched for high power dect or something similar , and found something that would get through thirty floors IIRC, whether it would work on our phone system I don't know, or fry your brain on a quick call. I opted for two carefully placed repeaters on only one line though.

mrcheerful

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes. Cat 5 cable and a small PABX.

[TonyK]

You mean fixed points around the building? I need portable handsets.

[Lurch]

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 08:05:03 -0000, "TonyK" strung together this:

DECT repeaters. Not sure what's available for domestic GAP usage, I've only used them on PABX's with cell stations but the idea is that you have one base station with DECT repeaters around the property that boost that single base stations signal. Similar in operation to mobile phone and television transmission techniques.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Think you're unlucky, or have unusual local circumstances. I've got two - with one base station at the top of the three story Victorian pile, and one on the ground floor. Both cover the entire house and garden fine. Even the old analogue cordless in the workshop does too.

[Mike]

Alcatel Spain make high power ones for the South American market where DECT is used instead of wires to connect to all the houses in small villages. They even do special base stations. Not legal here and not sure where you would buy one anyway.

[Lurch]

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 20:31:12 -0000, "Mike" strung together this:

Sounds like good advice so far.

Ah, perhaps it's not very good advice at all then.

Er, I'd guess Spain, or somewhere in South America?

[Mike]

Well we all break the law now and then, especially ones like Part P. These units have variable power so I don't think using them would cause a problem noticed by others.

Probably :-)

[Lurch]

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 21:47:15 -0000, "Mike" strung together this:

I thought that, I'd probably go with the repeaters myself. The advantage of the repeaters is that they will also give you a constant signal over a wide area as opposed to a huge signal at the base and a not quite so huge signal proportionate to how far away you are.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Why? Can't you walk 5 feet to a phone?