PMC Telecom News

BT Diverse Repeater

DECT Repeaters are a marvellous addition to any DECT cordless phone system, adding additional range to your existing Cordless Phone set-up.  If you have a particularly large house or need the phones to reach out to the bottom of the garden to a workshop, DECT repeaters help you to attain that extra range without any need for additional wiring.

How repeaters work is quite often a mystery to people enquiring about how to add a range extender to their system.  In this post I’ll try to explain how a repeater works and how you go about installing it to your existing DECT cordless phone system.

Limitations

First of all, it’s worth pointing out that not all Cordless DECT Phones are compatible with DECT repeaters – an easy way to tell if your phone is compatible is to check the set-up menu on your handset, and if you can find a “Repeater mode” option somewhere in there, it’s safe to say that your system is repeater compatible.  If in doubt, check your user guide.  Generally speaking we have found the following brands to be repeater compatible:

• Panasonic (all ranges – KX-TG) – Work well with the Panasonic KX-TGA272 repeater, the RTX 4002 and RTX4002 Pro Repeaters
• Siemens Gigaset (All ranges – Gigaset) – Only work with the BT Diverse Repeater (made by Siemens)
• BT (Diverse range only) – Only work with the BT Diverse Repeater

Please note that this isn’t a definitive list and you should always check with your manufacturer if you are at all unsure.

A repeater will register to your base unit in a similar manner as an additional handset on the system.

Standard repeaters can only be installed once in any given direction; for example, if your base unit is in a central location, you can put a repeater to the North, South, East and/or West of your base to extend the range, you can’t however, put a repeater to the North, then another one to the North of that, effectively “daisy-chaining” the repeaters together.

Note: The RTX4002 Pro Link repeater can be daisy chained, but for the sake of clarity and simplicity I’ve decided to keep this blog post to standard repeaters.

How do they work?

Your existing base unit will essentially be transmitting and receiving radio signals to and from the cordless handsets and in any environment the signal can become weaker depending on various conditions; thick walls, electrical interference, insulation etc.  Wherever you place your base unit, it will have an area of effectiveness, but when you get to the edge of this area your signal will begin to break up and you’ll eventually lose connection with your cordless phone if you venture further.  A DECT repeater works by receiving and transmitting the signal from the existing base unit out from this point (where your existing unit is at its signal limit).

The following images illustrate how this works – click to enlarge them.

How your Cordless Phone would work with a repeater. Click to enlarge.

Your DECT Cordless Phone and its range. Click to enlarge.

How to install your DECT Repeater

To install your repeater you’ll need to register it your original base unit (effectively as an additional handset on the system)

You’ll need to be near your phone’s base unit with the repeater in hand whilst you go through the process – once complete, you can simply unplug, then relocate the repeater to a suitable location.  The beauty of repeaters is that you can locate them almost anywhere indoors to give you the best range possible – usually somewhere high that has a good field of view of the area to be covered is best, but this is not always necessary.

Step-by-step – N.B This is a guide in a nutshell, you should consult both your repeater’s and your cordless phone’s user guide for more information.

1. Put your phone’s base unit into registration mode – usually by pressing and holding the “page” or “find” button for 3-5 seconds.  There is more info on this on our register handset posting, here.
2. Plug in your DECT repeater, or plug in the unit and then press and hold the registration button on the unit to put the unit into registration mode. Most repeaters have some sort of indicator light to let you know what mode it’s in – please check the your user guide for more info.
3. Once both units are in registration mode it shouldn’t be long until the two register together. Some sort of confirmation flash or indication should show on the repeater to indicate that this has been done.
4. Unplug the repeater and go to the area approximately where your handset signal is breaking up, then plug in the repeater.
5. On your cordless phone handsets you will usually have to activate “Repeater Mode”.  Browse the handset’s menu, and you should find this setting in the Set-up > Handset Set-up menu.  If you’re having problems finding this, please consult your user guide.
6. All done!
7. Try a test call outside of the range of your existing base unit’s range (somewhere near your repeater), you should have a perfectly clear signal.  You should be able to walk even further away and test how much range your new repeater has given you!

Please note that this is a very general guide and some repeaters and DECT systems differ slightly, but the above is a good approximation of the repeater registration procedure.  If you at all unsure of any steps, please check with your user guide or your manufacturer’s help page.

Useful Links:

PMC Telecom written Step-by-step guide on how to register the RTX Repeater to your Panasonic Phone system. PDF Format

Panasonic KX-TGA272 User Guide PDF Format

BT Diverse Repeater User Guide PDF Format

The registration option on a Panasonic handset

It’s safe to say that the process of registering a Cordless Phone handset is similar no matter which brand or model of cordless phone you have.  They all follow a similar procedure although they may differ slightly depending on the handset settings.  In this post I’ll run you through the procedure so you’ll at least have an idea of what to look for.

In essence you’ll be putting both your base unit, (the main box that is plugged into your telephone socket), and your unregistered handset into registration mode at the same time so they’ll effectively be “looking” for each other to make the connection.

Before we start, you’ll need to familiarise yourself
with a few things

Finding the “Find” Button on the Base unit.

On your base unit, you’ll need to look for the “Find” button – this is the button you’d press if you lost your handsets.  When you press this once it should ring all of your registered handsets.  Some manufacturers label this as “Page” or “Find”.  Panasonic usually have a little logo of a circle with three semi circles (like a speaker).

Familiarise yourself with your handset’s menu system.

Every DECT handset should have some way of navigating its menu system – this usually compromises of phonebook entries, last numbers called, answering machine messages and, almost always, a set-up menu. If you go into the set-up menu you should find a “Register Handset” option.  This is what you’re looking for.

Step-by-step

1. To put the base unit into registration mode you’ll need to press and hold the “find” Button for approximately 3-5 seconds.  Depending on the system you should hear an audible beep to say that the base is in registration mode, it’ll be a continuous beeping or flashing indicator, some systems give you no indication at all  (you can still try the next step if this is the case – it’s the best way to find out).
2. Once the base unit is in registration mode, you’ll need to browse your handset’s menus and find the register handset option.  Click that.
3. Your handset should now briefly display something along the lines of a “searching…” message.
4. The next step is usually a pin code.  The default pin code on 99.9% of Cordless DECT phones is 0000.  If you haven’t ever changed your base pin code, enter 0000 at this stage and confirm.
5. With any luck you should get some sort of confirmation that your handset has been registered – an audible beep, or flash, or a message on the handset.  The best way to test if the handset has registered is to simply try and make a call on the handset.  If you get a dialling tone, the handset has been registered.

Simple!  :o)

**Update** If you’re a Siemens Gigaset user – Siemens have a website here which gives exact instructions on each of thir handsets: http://gigaset.com/uk/en/cms/PageCustomerServicesRegisterHandset.html

The "Find" button on a Panasonic Base unit. Press and hold this for 3-5 seconds to put the base into registration mode.

Cordless Phone used in the pictures is a Panasonic KX-TG8521 for a full range of DECT cordless handsets, view the PMC Telecom shopping site here.

GAP Compatibility is essentially an agreement between the different phone manufacturers to make their DECT cordless handsets work with one an other.

For example: You have a GAP Compatible BT Diverse system which is nearly 10 years old, but one of your handsets has been dropped and won’t work any more – you like your BT Diverse and don’t want to replace the whole system, but the same handsets aren’t available any more.  With GAP you could purchase any additional GAP compatible handset regardless of the manufacturer (Panasonic, Siemens, BT etc) and register it to your existing BT Diverse system. Saving you the cost and hassle of replacing all of your phones.

Things to note: Gap Compatibility ensures that the handset will register to your existing base unit and will make and receive calls – other functions such as call transfer, caller ID, phonebook transfer etc are not guaranteed to work due to software on different handsets and manufacturers being different.   Due to the thousands of possible combinations of handsets available, this is not something anyone could advise on without testing the exact units together, however it is more likely that like-for-like manufacturer handsets will allow these features to work.

PMC Telecom stock a wide range of GAP Compatible additional cordless handsets on our website here.