It is an unwritten law of cordless phone ownership that the second handset will fall out of range a few metres short of the room it is most needed in.
Depending on the number of obstacles, this distance may be 20 metres or 100 hundred, as I well know—this review started out of frustration with a cordless phone system that wouldn’t quite reach a second dwelling about 100 metres in one direction; or the kitchen, about 20 metres and several walls in the other direction.
Googling around for add-on antennas and range extenders didn’t turn up any solutions. I was about to resign myself to outdoor phone conversations when I came across the new Uniden XDECT R series.
Uniden have recognised the unwritten law—a persistent source of frustration for those dealing with communications over a sprawl of farm buildings—and done something about it. Or so I hoped when I called the company and suggested that I test their claims for the unit.
The basic principle of the XDECT R series is simple: every handset base is also a receiver and transmitter.
In a conventional cordless phone setup, only the base station transmits a signal. The handset bases are simply recharging points, with no transmission capability.
Uniden has given each XDECT R handset base an aerial, and the ability to receive the signal from the main base station and re-transmit it to either a cordless handset or another XDECT R base.
In this manner, Uniden say it is possible to daisy-chain three handset bases to substantially extend on the range provided by the main base station alone.
The technology allows for two daisy-chains of bases running off the one base station. With two daisy chains, each of three handset bases, Uniden claims an eight-fold increase in range if calculated on the distance from the outer end of one daisy chain to the outer end of the other.
And in the real world? Works As Advertised.
Uniden have apparently done some tweaking on their XDECT R series, because even straightforward base station-to-handset reception is improved.
This household has been through a few brands of cordless phone, but the latest—and the source of the frustration over range—happened to be the otherwise excellent Uniden 7955.
The XDECT R clearly out-performed the 7955 in straight base station-handset range, but the magic happened when we took an XDECT R handset base over to the second dwelling 100 metres away.
With the handset base re-amplifying the signal from the distant base station, we could use the cordless handset anywhere in the second building, or anywhere immediately outside it.
The same effect occurred in a workshop in the other direction—a place I had never otherwise considered putting a phone. (And probably won’t, because I value the workshop as a place of peace—peace that can only be shattered in the appropriate way, with a power saw or grinder.)
As with most multi-handset cordless phones these days, the XDECT R also has a built-in intercom, which with its extended range capabilities positions it as a handy personal communications system across a farm building complex.
The base station comes with a built-in answering machine, and the Uniden system offers most of the bells and whistles, like a distinctive ring on chosen numbers, that are standard on modern cordless phones.
The test unit, which came with three handsets, also came with a headset for hands-free talking—perfect for talking to Mum while getting dinner ready.
The only stand-out flaw is part of another of the XDECT’s distinctive features: the ability to plug two separate phone lines into it, and use the same phone system to manage both.
Regrettably, Uniden doesn’t offer any way to default the menu system to reflect useage of a single phone line. Even if you only want to use one line, as I did during the trial period, the menu system overlays an extra level of complexity related to the phantom second line.
That gripe aside, I’d guess that with the XDECT R, Uniden have produced the cordless phone system that many rural users have been waiting for.
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