Cell phone signals inside passage to Alaska

[rvich]

I live in Juneau and cell coverage is good near any of the "major" towns but there are a lot of dead spots. We know when we have found cell coverage as my wife's phone will start chiming as all of her texts from all of her friends start coming in. At that point we will put out a rod and troll in circles if we have things we want off the internet. It doesn't often produce much of a catch but it does give us an excuse to hang in the area. If we want to listen to an entire baseball game, we plan ahead for somewhere that actually holds fish and has cell coverage. We also use an InReach for texting when off the grid.

If you don't mind dropping off the net for 24-hours, I doubt you will have a problem unless you choose a remote anchorage to hang out in. As noted previously there are some fairly big areas of BC with no cell phone. The InReach works well there for staying in touch.

[Johnknutson]

Originally Posted by StuartWeibel

I've made three trips up and down the inside passage in recent years; The maximum stretch with no signal at all is north of Klemtu to just south of Prince Rupert (5 or six days if you're as slow as I am (5 knot planning speed). You can reduce that to 3 days by poking around at the opening of Coughlan Anchorage near Hartly bay and the southern entrance to Grenville Channel. I rely on GRIB file readers for most of my weather updates, and three days works out fine for that... more than three days, and the forecasts get a bit dodgy.

The outsides of Baranof and Chichigoff Islands are pretty barren-of-signal as well, but you probably won't be spending much time out there.

The only problem you're likely to find in other areas of Inside Passage Alaska is who your carrier is. Ironially, T-mobile, which gives me unlimited (sort of ) in BC, is nearly useless in Alaska. I ended up buying a cheap phone and data from ATT to fill in that blank.

Great information. Thanks!

[Johnknutson]

Originally Posted by rvich

I live in Juneau and cell coverage is good near any of the "major" towns but there are a lot of dead spots. We know when we have found cell coverage as my wife's phone will start chiming as all of her texts from all of her friends start coming in. At that point we will put out a rod and troll in circles if we have things we want off the internet. It doesn't often produce much of a catch but it does give us an excuse to hang in the area. If we want to listen to an entire baseball game, we plan ahead for somewhere that actually holds fish and has cell coverage. We also use an InReach for texting when off the grid.

If you don't mind dropping off the net for 24-hours, I doubt you will have a problem unless you choose a remote anchorage to hang out in. As noted previously there are some fairly big areas of BC with no cell phone. The InReach works well there for staying in touch.

Sounds great. I hope to stop in Juneau on my way North if we have the time. Thanks for commenting.

[Johnknutson]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Not a bout cellphones but...

Andy is an editor for ThreeSheetsNorthwest.com and did Alaska to San Fran last year in one big go. It makes for an interesting read, and be sure to go back through some of his older posts.

Sea Stories: Romping 1,300-miles from Alaska to San Francisco – Rolling With Yahtzee

Thanks for the link!

[rbk]

Originally Posted by Johnknutson

Sounds great. I hope to stop in Juneau on my way North if we have the time. Thanks for commenting.

Provision in Petersburg and if weather permits you're better off rounding the south end of Admiralty and hitting up Warm Springs Bay (crew will appreciate it). Winds in Chatham are usually out of the south and you can make excellent time heading north with lots of hiding spots, then round the corner and on to Hoonah. This route is actually shorter and better sailing opportunities. If there is a good west offshore wind you'll end up with a north wind in Chatham (strongest on the east shore) but you can make progress to windward again with anchorages on almost every tack. A good south wind (35+) will kick up the swell in Chatham pretty good but not dangerous, just watch the tides and avoid the entrance to Peril Straights on the ebb in those conditions, same with the north end of Icy Straights entrance; Swanson harbor is a nice stop if you cant make Hoonah but the confluences can kick up where Icy and Chatham meet making for a lumpy, slow, confused crossing.

[EngNate]

From the NW reach of Johnstone Strait you'll have service until just about Blunden Harbour, then from the junction of Hunter Channel and Lama Pass S of Bella Bella through Seaforth Channel until close to Ivory Is. I don't remember about Klemtu and Hartley Bay. Other than those spots its nil north of Campbell River until Prince Rupert.

[rvich]

Originally Posted by Johnknutson

Sounds great. I hope to stop in Juneau on my way North if we have the time. Thanks for commenting.

Someone else commented on this but it might be good to say it again, we use AT&T here. Which is sad when we visit the lower-48 but its the best service in this area. I do not have experience on the water with a different provider so can't say what happens if you are not an AT&T customer.

Something else, regarding the InReach. I pair it with my iPhone or iPod Touch (which means I can leave my phone below deck where it belongs). It makes the texting much easier. Their app uses Forest Service maps intended for hiking but they will keep you in the intended channel.

One of the challenges of Southeast Alaska is finding anchorages with shallow enough depths to anchor. We commonly anchor in over a hundred feet of water and there will not be swinging room for 5 to 1 rode. Because of this we use all chain. Often 2 to 1 is what we end up with. We have become very good over the years at sneaking into little clefts that would normally be ignored. That or you have to run for an hour or two off the main channel. Hal Roth commented in his book After 50,000 Miles that Southeast Alaska was the most challenging sailing he encounter anywhere on the planet. Of course he was actually sailing.

[Rotten Ricky]

Good luck with your plans to sail to Alaska. I hope to do it sometime too.



My understanding is that often when a cell phone conversation cannot happen, a text will get through. I think that transmission of data in either direction is easier from a tech point of view, and so it is often successful with weaker signals over longer distances. Also, your cell phone when turned, on is always searching for a signal, even when you are not, and may indeed be able to transmit in odd places. You can fire off a text, then leave it to actually connect and transmit (and receive) at its next opportunity - and just not when you next find time to text or place a voice call.



A trip like this to the extremes of communications range also really emphasizes how important good connections in a VHF system are, so I hope yours are excellent.



But I hope someone can tell me why they say a cell booster is no help. I know that my wifi booster when RVing was a huge help at times.


Cheers, RR.

[rbk]

Originally Posted by rvich

Someone else commented on this but it might be good to say it again, we use AT&T here. Which is sad when we visit the lower-48 but its the best service in this area. I do not have experience on the water with a different provider so can't say what happens if you are not an AT&T customer.

Something else, regarding the InReach. I pair it with my iPhone or iPod Touch (which means I can leave my phone below deck where it belongs). It makes the texting much easier. Their app uses Forest Service maps intended for hiking but they will keep you in the intended channel.

One of the challenges of Southeast Alaska is finding anchorages with shallow enough depths to anchor. We commonly anchor in over a hundred feet of water and there will not be swinging room for 5 to 1 rode. Because of this we use all chain. Often 2 to 1 is what we end up with. We have become very good over the years at sneaking into little clefts that would normally be ignored. That or you have to run for an hour or two off the main channel. Hal Roth commented in his book After 50,000 Miles that Southeast Alaska was the most challenging sailing he encounter anywhere on the planet. Of course he was actually sailing.

Boosters don’t help when there’s no signal to boost.

[Rotten Ricky]

I had hoped that a booster might pick up an incoming weak signal and make it usable, but I can see your point.

However, what about an outgoing signal? Surely a booster, having been sent a strong signal, would help send an even stronger signal that would be more likely be received by distant towers?

Thx, RR.

[Dsanduril]

For SE Alaska you may also want to look at the local carrier, GCI. They sometimes have better rates than AT&T. In some places they share towers/antennas, in others they each operate their own. If you carry two phones then one on each will get you the best coverage as sometimes one has coverage where the other doesn't.

GCI's coverage map is reasonably accurate, AT&T's is a bit optimistic for the same area. If you look at Stephens Passage as an example, you can go from Juneau to Petersburg with almost zero coverage the whole way, and can easily spend a week or a month making that distance (just running up the Seymour Canal and back out can be a well spent week).

Running up Chatham you'll find better coverage underway, but once you duck into a nice anchorage with hills all around... In those cases we turn on the phone's hotspot, put the phone in a dry bag, and hoist it up the mast. Usually helps when we need data, and we can make WiFi calls from the other phone using the hotspot.

In all regards, would not consider it in any way "reliable" unless you are near the towns.

[rbk]

Originally Posted by Rotten Ricky

I had hoped that a booster might pick up an incoming weak signal and make it usable, but I can see your point.

However, what about an outgoing signal? Surely a booster, having been sent a strong signal, would help send an even stronger signal that would be more likely be received by distant towers?

Thx, RR.

Yes and no. In more populated areas where there is overlap in tower coverage with 'weak' spots boosters help. Up here there is one tower in one town and a very definitive 'edge of service'. I think most will find that once you leave civilization you stop looking for service rather quick and just enjoy the solitude; Until one day you're tied up at dock in a town then after a few minutes you go 'oh ya I wonder if there's service here?' Even cruising along, sometimes someone just happens to check their phone and a surprised 'hey I've got 3 bars!' then everyone fires off texts until its gone and the phones go away again. While cruising my phone is in airplane mode and used only for pictures and music.

[Capt Phil]

Cell phones weren’t invented yet when I fished the inside passage commercially!
Capt Phil

[rvich]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

Cell phones weren’t invented yet when I fished the inside passage commercially!
Capt Phil

Yup, in those days you listened to the marine operator for entertainment!