Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bu.edu!telecom-request From: mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Michael J Kobb) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: AT&T Cordless Phones, Security, Flexible Antennas Message-ID: <74374@bu.edu.bu.edu> Date: 9 Feb 91 20:59:46 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Reply-To: Michael J Kobb Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge MA Lines: 70 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 105, Message 6 of 7 In article <16490@accuvax.nwu.edu> nolan@helios.unl.edu writes: >ho@hoss.unl.edu (Tiny Bubbles...) writes: >>1. Are flexible antennas any good? They sell them for ten bucks or >> so at the local discount store (genuine AT&T), but they're pretty >> short compared to the "whip" that comes with it. Do they work as >> well as the whip? (Too bad they can't retract.) >I personally prefer the flexible antennas, as opposed to the three >foot extendible/breakable monsters. >BTW, I've had several cordless phones, and have had VERY good luck >with the higher priced Panasonic phones, especially the ten channel >model. (I missed the original posting, but get the impression it >slammed Panasonic.) I've not had much good luck with Sony cordless >phones, though. This is interesting, since it's 180 degrees away from my experience. I recently purchased a Sony SPP-120 cordless. Actually, I bought three cordless phones: the Sony, a Panasonic KX-T4000 (the one reminiscent of a StarTrek communicator), and a Panasonic KX-T3620. I bought these phones from a place with a thirty-day trial period, so I could pick the one I wanted to keep. All these phones have flexible antennas and ten channels. I recently moved into an apartment building, and the apartment was big enough to justify the cordless. The KX-T4000 was a catastrophe. Seven or eight times out of ten, I couldn't even get a dial tone. The phone would just beep at me in it's "I can't connect to the base unit" mode. This happened even with the phone directly next to the base. The KX-T3620 was more successful. It always linked up with the base, but I experienced pretty bad static problems with it (some of which I associate with the dinky antenna). Otherwise, I really like the phone (my standard phone is a Panasonic, and I've always liked it, too). The Sony was the clear winner. I get zero static most of the time, and its reception is good enough that I can walk down the exterior hall towards the elevator and still carry on a conversation (although there's a bit of static then). It works fine on my balcony. I attibute this success to the unit's nine-inch helical antenna, and the base unit's two foot antenna. A also like the Sony's battery systems. First, the handset has a one week standby / twelve hour talk endurance. Second, there's a second battery which is maintained charged in the base, so that the phone never need be without battery power to recharge. The base battery also acts as backup power for the base unit, in the event of an AC power failure. My only complaint is the sound quality. It has something of a "walkie-talkie" feel, like the microphone is too sensitive. Here's the question: I kept the Sony, and am quite happy with it. I do have one question, though: the display at the store claimed that it had 1,000,000 security codes, but there are no DIP switches (contrary what a previous poster claimed to have found on his SPP-120) or any mention in the manual of how to set them. Does the code come from the factory, unique to each phone? Or, does the phone pick a new one every time you hang up? (The latter seems unlikely, since the handset doesn't have a cradle, so I don't know how the phone could possibly recover if the code were somehow scrambled). Thanks, Mike