Can I revive my plea for some help in buying a cordless phone, please?

I went up the nearby Tottenham Court Road and ended up buying a BT Freestyle 610 for the two reasons that (a) it was white and matched our kitchen and (b) it had extra large buttons making it easier to use.

It has two faults. One is that the ringing on the base unit is an ugly strident screech. You can't turn it down. Yes, you can make the ringing on the handset gentle, but there is no way you can stop the base unit making you jump out of your skin. It's horrid.

Second fault is that the wireless link is so weak that it cannot reach from our kitchen to any other room in the flat. OK we live in a Victorian block with thick walls, but this is pathetic - and consequently useless. There is no point in having a cordless phone if you can't carry it from one room to the next.

I'm going to get no advice up the TCR as anyone who has shopped there will know all too well.

Can anyone come up with any ideas, please? I know that as soon as I take this phone back to the shop I'll simply be palmed off with b*llsh*t.

Your help, oh wise ones, please!

TP

If you go for a digital phone then you should be able to use a different base unit with your existing handset and also more than one handset, although BT may not be standard.

I've used Panasonic and Erricson and had no problems but they're coloured grey. I would never buy BT kit because they always rebrand somene elses but don't give you the service.

You could also consider a WiFi VOIP phone.

"you should be able to use a different base unit with your existing handset "

But what differs is the connector that charges the battery in the handset.

"I would never buy BT kit because they always rebrand somene elses but don't give you the service."

I must have been lucky with what I think was a Diverse 9100 the first time round. Pity I broke the battery container. That was quiet and it worked all over the flat.

"You could also consider a WiFi VOIP phone."

Not practical for a kitchen, surely? I just want something I can plug into the phone socket.

TP

I have always bought cordless phones from street marets. They have cost from 10 - 15 for a pair and work fine (that price includes an answer phone). They were new and boxed. Thye work anywhere in the house, down the bottom of a 150' garden and a long way down the road.

TP. Can't you re-site the base station somewhere more to the middle of the house? Maybe upstairs so the 'waves' go through the floorboards rather that Queen Victorian brick? Just a thought.

I use a Panasonic digital cordless phone at home (with integrated digital answer system). There is an additional handset and charger base which gives me intercom and call trasfer facilities as well.

All these DECT (Digitally Enhanced Cordless Telephone) systems are fundamentally the same technology, so you are dependent on the manufacturer for the quality of the device. I happen to have had good experiences with Panasonic kit.

The technology is basically the same as a low-power 1800 Mhz GSM phone (the band primarily used by Orange and T-mobile in the UK). Given the power and frequency involved, thick walls will present a greater hurdle than distance. Placement of the base station is the key, and a willingness to experiment to find the optimal position.

Hope this helps.

Bolshi,

Sadly it is already bang in the middle.

MM,

"a willingness to experiment to find the optimal position."

Sadly each experiment costs me because without buying the machine I can't find out whether the base station tinkles or screeches, nor can I find out how far it will reach.

I've kept the receipt and the box from the machine I bought a couple of weeks ago but I know that as soon as I walk into the shop I will be treated as being an ignorant pest.

I'd willingly pay a goodly sum for one I knew was right, rather than trickle the money away hoping to find a decent one.

TP.

If it helps, I got the worlds cheesiest Binatone Symphony G10 cordless digital phone set (1 base station and two extra handsets), and they have not let me down in 12 months.
Reception is good wherever I roam in or around the house and they cost the equivelent of fish & chips for the family!!
Alan

Forgot to mention, the transmitter power of a DECT base or phone is 100mW.

TP: the Panasonic kit lets you choose different handset ring tones and volume, including different ones for different call types (intercom, external call, etc). The base station -- as I recall -- has a single tone. I'll check the handbook when I get home (yes, yes, I know real men don't read instruction manuals) and see if its volume is adjustable as well.

As to experimentation, I meant simply moving the base around a bit. Height helps, and position can be quite sensitive to small distances, even a few inches, at 1800MHz.

Tp. Well in that case you're f*****d! :-)))))

http://www.cordless-phones.uk.com - PANASONIC KX-TG 7124 QUAD DECT PHONE - '5*'- 37 reviews to read (but not one from MM)

I have a Panasonic system, the KX-TCD240E, with the maximum of six phones. It's brilliant because it functions as a mini-switchboard. The base station is at one end of the (long) house and there is no problem with reception even at the other end. It is on the first floor, which helps, but it works fine even with three solid walls in between (one of which is an old outside wall).

One thing to bear in mind is that the waves mainly go through doors and down corridors and through floorboards rather than through walls, so if you can, site the base station appropriately. Also you could try putting it higher up, e.g. on a shelf.

Look for a model with a number of selectable ring tones. Ours plays music :-)

TP:

Kayak's points are spot on. At the frequencies used by these phones, they rely on the radio signal bouncing around the place to reach its destination. The wavelength of the signal is about 16cm, just under 6". Basically, the signal will reflect from solid objects bigger than that (RADAR anyone?), but it also means that you get what are known as "waveguide" effects, where a signal tunnels along a cavity, bouncing merrily off the walls of the cavity.

As an aside, I have often wondered what it would be like to have the ability to "tune" one's eyes below the visible spectrum to the RF ranges, so you could view all this stuff. A bit like taking LSD, I surmise. :)) All those waves, all those colours, all those vibrations, man.

On edit: Oh, and I nearly forgot surface and edge effects, to which Kayak alludes in his post. A radio wave will "bend" around the edge of a doorway, for example.

Lots of overnight advice. Thanks folks.

Did you find out whether you could tone down (yes, pun intended, sadly) the noise from the base unit, MM?

My BT jobbie has all sorts of alternatives for the roving handset, but you can do nothing to humanise the base charging unit. I am sure it is to do with Brussels making it illegal not to know that you have an incoming call when you are sitting in/on the outside loo!

I even opened up the base with the intention of snipping the connectors to the warbler, but gave up as I could not guess what chip did what. Currently the base unit is sitting on a piece of foam rubber as my wife is fed up with jumping out of her skin each time this dreaded thing 'rings'. And it still frightens the cat next door!

Gosh this is boring compared with chat about demountable Raid arrays, but if you have the patience please keep the ideas coming.

TP

TP, snap, I snipped the connections to the speaker on my last phone :-)

K,

How did you know which was the speaker? I might as well do that as I'll never get any money back from the shop.

TP

? It's where the sound comes from :-) Normally under a grill or hole in the outer casing.

K.

Do they have a particular appearance? I seem to feel that when I opened up my casing I saw several 'chips' about the size of a camera CF card, but nothing that looked like a mini loudspeaker.

TP.

TP

Try putting blue tack into the hole where the sound comes out.

Docproc. I think you asked for a decision and action over Internet connection on Continent. I have settled for a T-Mobile data card (bought at 20 per month) Easy to connect and adequate for me in wandering around in Britain. Said that I can use zones in France , Spain and Portugal. Not sure yet.