FC VC Now Has Free Wifi

[AlanMcR]

I did try the FC WIFI a month ago. Per the local staff, it is locked down to "registered hotel guests". I had full bars on Google Fi, which I believe is served by T-mobile, unfortunately very few packets actually went through.

There used to be a real live phone switch board at SPW. To call into the area you'd dial 0 and ask the operator to connect you to "Death Valley 2000". If the switchboard operator (who was also the hotel front desk person) was so inclined, they would answer and route you to one of the few local phones.

[bbbb]

There has been free wifi at the VC for many years.  Maybe it was offline for some years so seems new to you?  It used to work if you sat at the benches in the shaded area just outside the door.  But at least last time I checked they turned it off overnight!  So unless you came by during office hours, you were SoL.    It must be pretty crazy trying to use recreation.gov, which they seem to be relying on increasingly, out there.  I can roam onto the cell network and use up my ration of data in a few minutes...  or have nothing at all  A friend who has AT&T service often has decent connectivity at SPW but not very far away, and somehow from year to year, sometimes it works, sometimes no.  The SPW wifi is fine at 4 AM   on the patio behind the office of course.

It used to be that when I could visually see Stovepipe, I could get a cell signal, and that includes being high up in the Cottonwoods. It's been nice being able to get a call out. That said, I have a small sample size of trips and haven't tested this recently.

[DAW89446]

Back in analogue days, I could make a cell call anywhere in Panamint Valley, also Greenwater Valley.

[Beardilocks]

Currently cell service in the main valley & SPW is 3G only and comes off the repeater on Mormon Peak above Butte Valley. Current capacity is 90mb/s. For the whole park.

I can make calls but usually only stopped. The signal can’t keep up with me driving apparently.

[MojaveGeek]

Currently cell service in the main valley & SPW is 3G only and comes off the repeater on Mormon Peak above Butte Valley.

How sure are you of this? There has been a cell base station in SPW for a few years. The antenna is by the employee housing but at the side closest the hotel, and near the restaurant. I assume back haul is via the microwave link from the little hill near the mouth of Little Bridge, back to FC (same link goes up to Grapevine). I definitely see a mobile operator there which is a string of digits and I can't get data without roaming. My wife, same carrier (T-Mobile) gets data there. My friend Eric with AT&T used to get great data there but it was marginal a year ago. Even if there is data, the channel is over used when the guests are awake, and it chokes.

I see the same mobile operator, string of digits, within a mile or so of FC. I believe it is the same carrier which operates a few sites along 95 through Beatty, but I also recall seeing that carrier as having a name, not the string of digits, which I hit it. I used to get data off that, e.g. when I was up in the Panamints.

I don't get any signal in most other places in the park but I've not been in a year so coverage may have changed.

T-Mobile coverage map claims to have "partner" coverage from FC along the North Road and over to Towne Pass. I did have phone, not data, last year at the vault toilets by the Mud Canyon / North Rd junction when I called in some campers well off the road.

It seems to vary from year to year. Down in the Owlsheads I hit a cell in Ridgecrest some times.