tjfs@tadtec.uucp (Tim Steele) (02/20/91)
In the UK we use a cordless phone standard that specified 8 (?) channels with the base station transmitting around 1.6 MHz and the handset transmitting around 47 MHz. The standard was recently upgraded to require a 16 bit code to be exchanged between the handset and base station as a security measure. The audio is plain old FM, I think. a) How does the US standard work? b) Does anyone know any tweaks to make cordless phones work better? I have discovered the position of the aerials *and the phone cord* is critical for good performance, but lengthening the MW aerial doesn't seem to make any difference. Tim [Moderartor's Note: You can peak the base unit a little to get another quarter watt or so out of it, and you can trim the antenna to a half-wave instead of the eighth (or quarter)-wave on most units, but I recommend against it simply because there is very little you can do to increase the performance on the remote unit, and why bother with a super strong base unit heard all over the neighborhood if the remote can't get back to it after more than a city block or so distant? PAT]