Most of us who have owned legacy iDEN DC phones have relished the "speed dial" feature for Direct Connect calls. Basically, it works by pressing only the last number of a fleet ID and the ptt button to quickly initiate conversations with others on your fleet.

Most of us probably thought the feature was lost on the new QChat phones since they use an email address instead of a fleet number. Good news! Now, not only can you choose to still do this as before, it doesn't matter whether the person is even on your fleet or not.

This is because DC numbers can be stored in speed dial slots instead of regular telephone numbers. Another trick that can be added to this feature is to use the speed dial slot for both DC and mobile numbers by programming one on say, speed dial number 3, and the other number on speed dial number 33. What this does is when you press "3" on the keypad, it keys up both numbers starting with "3" on the display. This gives the user a choice to either press the digit once and scroll to the number, or to "double click" the key for the desired result.

What I've done is store my numbers this way: for key number 2, I placed my mother-in-law's mobile there. Then, I put her DC number on speed dial 22. So, when I call her, I can either hold the "2" key down, and it speed dials her mobile, or I can double click the "2" key and hit the ptt button. The reverse can be done as well, but the double click shifts to the mobile.

Hope this benefits someone. Happy DC-ing!