Batboard

Just wondering if there are any Nextel/iDen compatible radios that put out more power than the phones do. Thanks!

IDen was developed by Motorola for Nextel. Far as I know no one else
uses the format. Power output in most handhelds these days is
inversely proportional to the strength of the received signal, so the stronger
the reception the lower the transmitted signal, down to about .2 of a watt
in many cases.

The old story about not wanting to fry your brain, if you believe that stuff.

iDEN was developed for Motorola by Motorola, not strictly for NEXTEL. Motorola produces the Harmony product which is the public version of iDEN that is available and there are commercial iDEN systems in Isreal as well.

Here is a description of Harmony on the Motorola website:
http://www.motorola.com/governmentanden ... i/id_2476i

As to a higher powered iDEN product, I highly doubt it. Some maybe more efficient that others in reception, like the i325 that has a fixed antenna, but the power output is ultimately controlled by the network.

M370, or M470 units will do 3 watts, they are mobiles. They will not cross fleet, and are hard to come buy.

For a handheld, the R750 is 1 watt output, on some you have to enable the 1 watt in the RSS (with depot level, or above). The R750 was the last RADIO built for the iDEN network.

Jim.

What do you mean by will not cross fleet? Thanks!

When you set up a Nextel account, your account is assigned a unique fleet ID. All members of your account belong to your fleet. Same thing as if you put up a radio system with portables, they all are on your system and no one else.

Nextel overcame this initially by creating networks within geographical areas. You would join your fleet to these networks with other fleets so that you could communicate with each other (ie construction sites with dozens of different contractors). These networks were bound by geographical locations based on systems. Nextel has overcome that limitation by the method of "cross fleet" which allows one subscriber to talk to another subscriber anywhere in the network.

The older mobile radios were never designed to work in the new environment thus they can only communicate with other members of your account or fleet.

Hope that helps. It should be pretty accurate.

The output power is controlled by the system. Even if the phone is capable of 1 watt the system typicially won't let it go there nor do any of the others ever really see .6 watts output.

The R750 doesn't have 900MHz either, so the instance of a dropped call due to a capacity issue is increased no matter what the power output is.

Mark's right, usually your SQE (Nextel's equiv of an RSSI) wont let you get beyond .6W.

There was a 900mhz only R750 produced, for some 900mhz only iden systems, but they wont operate on nextel's network, AFAIK.

The highest power iden subscribers I know of are the B370/M470 M100, and L1000/L3000 (they are based on the MCS/LCS), which all can do up to 3W, but usually is governed down, based on your signal stength.

Great product for its day, they arent cross fleet capable, however.

A car kit with a real coaxial connection (not the inductive coupled ones) with a good roof antenna will work wonders.

There are these, but I think it was determined that although they might be similar to the Nextels, they are not compatible with the Nextels.

http://www.motorola.com/governmentanden ... pe=id_825i

Guys how about the L3000 or Lingo, it won't do nationwide, but I'm pretty sure the power ouput is higher 1 or 3 watts...

The R750 900mhz.





-Mike

The R750 and the L3000/L3000E or Lingo will do 1 watt output. I still use an L3000E every day for work related things and I've never had an issue. If you are using the radio for a mobile, desktop, or dispatch application then there are always the mobile units mentioned above. They all do 3 watts out. We have a number of them at work setup as desktop stations. A couple of the models will even scan multiple groups.....which is a handy feature for me.

As long as you are going to be communicating within your fleet then you don't have an issue. My radio is SouthernLINC and all our users are on the same fleet so I don't have an issue with that. Majority of Nextel users in our area are on one of two fleets, carryover from the days when cross fleet was not available. One fleet for contractors, construction, blue collar, etc, and one fleet for medical, professional, legal, white collar, etc.

-Justin