atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Toshiba Telephones & Systems 2404 with Repeater(s)

Didnt want to dig up this old thread so Im starting a new one. We have a customer, hotel with resteraunt, kitchen is in the basement where they have the room service phone(DKT-3014 with a 2004 cordless). The building is 5 stories, all brick. They have problems, obviously, with the cordless when they are on the upper floors. I want to relocate the base unit to at least the first floor, and upgrade them to a 2404. Question is, do you think I will need a repeater to put on the third floor? Im thinking I should just get them the phone first and see what sort of range they get and then if needed, get a repeater after that. Sound like a good plan?

I walked side-by-side with a CKT-2404-DECT and a DKT 2304 phone. Once we got behind some buildings the new 2404-dect cut out while the old 2304 still had good reception.

So I would be ready to expect less reception distance through walls, not more. We added a repeater which helped. The repeater has to be placed where you still have good reception, not where the signal cuts out. If I remember, you can daisy chain the repeaters.

In open area, the new DECT phone seems to have good range.

I have had the opposite effect of what newtecky described. We walked a 2404 and a 2304 around a warehouse. Behind walls, up a floor, out behind the building and recorded ~30% greater range on the 2404. Haven't tried it in a brick building.

IMO put the 2404 in first. The repeaters are real easy to program and shouldn't be a hassle to install after the phone. The move to the first floor makes alot of sense aswell. If I remember right you can daisy chain them, but only up to 3 deep. 6 Total if they are all repeating off of the base.

On a side note, I have never had any luck with 2304s. Almost all of our customers have complained about horrible battery life and range. To be fair to the phone though, my customers like to drop them on concreate...

That is interesting. Maybe it is the type of obstructions that can block the signal more then others. I would have expected that the higher frequiency would penetrate walls better then the old phones.

The 1st time I installed this phone, I thought it had very good range, but on 2 different installs I had pretty bad results.

One install was inside a metal building and I would be about 25 feet from the base when the signal would completely die.

The time I did a side-by-side comparison was at a motel. I installed the new base right next to the old one in an attic space to get as high as possible. The entire site was on an incline of a hill. Maybe it was the earth that blocked the new phone, but the old phone had a much longer range.