What Is Direct Talk?
Direct 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. Traditional Direct Connect will have each phone connected to a cell tower, which relays and routes all communications. Direct Talk bypasses the towers, and works between phones. The feature was presumably introduced for Nextel users who found themselves in dead zones often enough to also have to carry conventional walkie-talkies.
From a technical perspective, Direct Talk is a digital simplex 900 MHz (ISM Band) Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) format. Nextel lists the power output around 0.7 Watts (700 mW). There appear to be ten channels, times fifteen codes. It is believed that the 15 codes do not influence the 10 FHSS sequences, but are equivalent to talk groups. 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.
As with all simplex handhelds, range figures vary tremendously; Nextel says “up to 7″ but advertises 2-3 miles as a more common range. (Although it’s rarely done on cell phones these days, remember that extending the antenna will help considerably.) Private (one-on-one) and group calls are supported. Nextel states that there is a limit of 16-20 users on a group call in close distance.
The feature is also known as MOTO Talk, MotoTalk, Direct Talk, DirecTalk, LincAround, Off-Net, Off-Network, Boost and SouthernLINC typically disable the feature on their phones. 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. A SIM card is required for DirectTalk to operate, though you do not need active service with any provider. 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.
List of Direct Talk Compatible Phones...
Nextel/Motorola ic402
Nextel/Motorola ic502
Nextel/Motorola ic602
Nextel/Motorola ic902Nextel/Motorola i275
Nextel/Motorola i315
Nextel/Motorola i325
Nextel/Motorola i335
Nextel/Motorola i355
Nextel/Motorola i365
Nextel/Motorola i425
Nextel/Motorola i455
Nextel/Motorola i560
Nextel/Motorola i570
Nextel/Motorola i580
Nextel/Motorola i615
Nextel/Motorola i670
Nextel/Motorola i760
Nextel/Motorola i776
Nextel/Motorola i850
Nextel/Motorola i855
Nextel/Motorola i870
Nextel/Motorola i880