cordless phones

greetings, my elderly father spends alot of time at his workshop and barn that are about 300 feet from the house.he has concerns about calling for help whilst away from the house so i am looking for a cordless phone that would cover that kind of range or better.does such a cordless phone exist? stringing a land line is not really an option. thanks, cj

Reply to
cj
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There are a number of variations of small walkie-talkie kinds of radios that might serve your purpose.

Take a look at

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See what the local stores have or go online.

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie

I'd suggest that you go to

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pay the six dollar monthly fee, and check their cordless phone reviews. A friend of mine just replaced a couple of lousy cordless phones with one of the AT&T models, but I don't know which ones. She said not all models from that brand fared well in the tests, so you can't assume anything about any particular brand.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

Similar problem here. Tried those 2 way radios. Hard to find a channel that has does not other people on it..So bought a cell Trac Phone from WalMart. Inexpensive and minutes are low cost. Wife is disabled and I carry this phone left on when working in the shop or if I leave the house. That way she calls me with our regular phone. Works great. WW

Reply to
WW

Yeah, cordless phones have FCC limits on power output and 300 feet is getting marginal. The pay per use cellphone is probably a much better choice. If your father works in a metal-enclosed building, both the cellphone and the cordless phone will have problems.

Reply to
hrhofmann

Net 10 10 cents a minute, no dollar a day for the 1st use like so many of them have. 300 minutes for 30 bucks and adds 60 days. I love it. You can get a cheap one at walgreens on sale for 25.99 and it comes with 300 minutes/60 days.

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Check it out, I get by for 15 bucks for a phone a month, using this and use skype to call out at 2 cents a minute. Grandpa will love texting with the grand kids.

Reply to
FatterDumber& Happier Moe

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FWIW our 900 megahertz cordless phone works well for several hundred feet. However in certain places inside neighbour's house across a fairly busy road. it can get fuzzy or noisy; but moving a few feet usually takes care of it.

It also works OK in daughter's house some 150 feet behind ours, but again there are few places within that house where it is weak or noisy. Probably due to metal air ducts, wiring and metal pipes in the walls etc. All houses are wood frame construction, although ours also has Al. foil in the walls! The base unit is located approx. in middle of the house away from any exterior walls.

A much lower frequency 'baby monitor' does not work as well as the cordless phone.

Also a review on TV that indicated that a test of some newer 2 gigahertz cordless phones failed at about the same distances as 900 mhz. But those tests were using the handset outside of all houses!

I would tend to opt, based on personal experience for a 900 mhz. unit. Or a cheap cell phone. As also a senior; mine carried for emergencies costs $11.30 per month, taxes included and also including some air time. It is rarely used!

By proper location of the 900 mhz host unit; maybe placing it in say a window and unless the parental workshop is inside a metal shed there is good chance 900 mhz. will work as remote cordless phone from the house phone line.

Our cordless GE 26921 GE2-R, ATLINKS USA INC. IIRC it cost $25.

We have replaced the handset battery probably once in some eight years using a cheap dollar store battery. We occasionally allow the battery to run down to avoid overcharging 'battery memory' effect.

Hope this useful.

Reply to
terry

They make walkie talkies now that go 25 miles. A good set with charger will cost you about $50. I like Midland brand. You might get an additional charger, or buy a set that has two separate chargers, so one in the house, one in the shop. The good thing about them, too, is that when he goes out back of the shop, or is under a car, he will have the radio in his pocket (hopefully), and if he runs into a rowdy skunk, or is just feelin a little puny, he won't have to make it back to the shop for the phone.

Yah, yah, I know a phone can be carried in the pocket, too. But have you seen these little radios? I have had several sets now, and all the family have them. We get on 1-31, and they all can talk to each other, so you can have all kinds of brands, and they will transmit on like frequencies. The radios would be convenient for all over the property, and you might consider a set of four.

Rag on him for a couple of weeks to carry it in his pocket when he leaves the shop, as if he gets into trouble, it won't do him any good with it back at the shop. I'm an old fart, so don't know how I know these things.

We lost one at the cabin one year. The next spring, we found it, where it would have been under five feet of snow for the winter. We figured it was toast. We charged it, and it worked perfectly. It was a Midland, one of the upper grades. I would have bet a days pay that it wasn't going to work.

Others here have said similar.

Steve

visit my blog at

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watch for the book

Reply to
Steve B

What he said. Buy upper grade Midland.

Steve

visit my blog at

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watch for the book

Reply to
Steve B

Wow..... You must live in a densely populated area. With the permutations of channels on there, there must be thousands. I never had that problem, and when we did, we'd just jump channels.

Steve

visit my blog at

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watch for the book

Reply to
Steve B

There are only 7 (or is it 9?) FRS channels, and only a few tens of GMRS channels on the walkie-talkies I've seen advertised.

And people should be aware that use of the GMRS channels (intended originally, AIUI, for business use) requires an FCC license -- no idea whether that costs money.

Perce

Reply to
Percival P. Cassidy

"FatterDumber& Happier Moe" wrote in message news:4c34a448$0$11805$ snipped-for-privacy@news.suddenlink.net...

Not sure if this plan is still available but our Virgin setup is $.18 a minute but only have to "top-up" $15 every 3 months or more often if you use up your minutes. Personally I don't even use the 28 minutes a month that the $5 gets me so my cell bill is $5 a month. The phone was free when I signed up about 3 years ago. Also includes texting and email for $.15 a pop.

Reply to
tom

Unless you are on a hill or maybe over water there is no way a walkie talkie will go 25 miles. Not even the high powered ones of 5 watts or so. You will be lucky to get 2 or 3 miles out of them in the normal flat areas especially when the plants have lots of leaves on them. .

I have been a ham for over 35 years and have played with them for years. This is not the $ 50 class, but more like the $ 250 each and up class, but the price has came down to about half that now.

To get the 25 mile range you must be on tall hills or mountains.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

12 miles here:

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Reply to
tom

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in........36 here:

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Reply to
tom

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Just in........36 here:

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Have you tried either of the radios ? The ads can say anything. Looks like a Billie Mays ad on TV. Also same type of ads that you add things to your car to get beter gas milage. I bought a bunch of them and installed it on a car. Had to drain a couple of gallons out each week it saved me so much :-)

Why stop there ? I talked to someone on a WT around 200 miles away . He was on a jet around 35,000 feet off the ground. Couple of others I know talked over 100 miles but one was on Mt. Mitchell (highest point on the east coast). This was with the low power WTs. In the flat lands you would be lucky to get a mile out of them.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

900 MHz? They still make those?
Reply to
Ron

Hi, They don't make them but can find them.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Some of the DECT 6.0 phones are good for 0ver 700 feet under the right conditions. My cheap GE unit is good for about 300 feet in town.

Reply to
clare

I can find one stored with the rest of my "obsolete" electronics.

Reply to
Ron

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