![]() It would require that those phones converted to repeaters be left on all of the time. This got me to thinking that if we could turn some of the iden phones into repeaters, the way a lot of ham radios can, we could set up a long distance network if there were enough participants. Other phones that were farther away than could normally pick my signal up were able to hear me that extra quarter mile. Still, it inreased my range by about a quarter mile to have another iden phone on direct connect close by. Although their individual range is limited, especially within city limits, when you have multiple phones where at least one phone is within range, the other phones can hear you, but your signal maybe broken up and garbled. But I’ve been experimenting using the 6 iden phones I have. So I think it would be quite hard to actually hear anything. You can only key up and talk if someone else is in range. I have noticed some intriguing things about Direct Talk. Maybe I’m getting starved for human contact and going stir-crazy, but it might be fun to try. There may not be enough users left to try this but if we could select a day and time frame to all turn on our direct talk phones and see who is around our area and say hello. But in any case, I thought it would be interesting to see just how many people out there have the Nextel phones and know about direct talk. Boost i455 (mixed reviews: some do work)Ĭonsidering there haven’t been many posts in recent yearsI am not sure if anyone is out there reading these.I have put “(not supported)” aside them for the benefit of those who find this via search and don’t read in full. Nextel i455 (mixed reviews: some apparently have the feature disabled). ![]() (I have not personally verified this information.) The following phones do support Direct Talk. I have seen mixed reviews about attempting to use the service with “virgin” cards that have never been activated, or have been activated on non-iDEN networks: some have reported it works great, others have said it did not. The feature is independent of carriers (since it bypasses towers), but can be disabled in the handsets, as those providers have been known to do.Ī SIM card is required for DirectTalk to operate, though you do not need active service with any provider. Boost and SouthernLINC typically disable the feature on their phones. Nextel states that there is a limit of 16-20 users on a group call in close distance. Private (one-on-one) and group calls are supported. (Although it’s rarely done on cell phones these days, remember that extending the antenna will help considerably.) The “channels” do not appear to match up with those used by other products, such as Motorola’s DTR-series radios or the TriSquare handhelds.Īs with all simplex handhelds, range figures vary tremendously Nextel says “up to 7” but advertises 2-3 miles as a more common range. It is believed that the 15 codes do not influence the 10 FHSS sequences, but are equivalent to talkgroups. There appear to be ten channels, times fifteen codes. ![]() Nextel lists the power output as being 0.7 Watts (700 mW). The feature was presumably introduced for Nextel users who found themselves in dead zones often enough to also have to carry conventional walkie-talkies.įrom a technical perspective, Direct Talk is a digital simplex 900 MHz (ISM Band) Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) format. Direct Talk bypasses the towers, and works between phones. Traditional Direct Connect will have each phone connected to a cell tower, which relays and routes all communications. What Is Direct Talk?ĭirect Talk is a term used to describe the ability of certain Nextel-style (Motorola iDEN) phones to do two-way radio style chat (“chirping” or “Direct Connect”) without the need for cell towers. It was gathered while I researched the feasibility of picking up a few old Nextels to use as off-network walkie-talkies. Please Note: None of this information should be considered authoritative. (The actual list is a bit further down the page, if you’d like to skip there.)
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