Cell reception

One of my biggest fears for this project is that the payload will come down safely with no damage to the cameras but have no cell service to send its GPS coordinates to Instamapper, leaving me absolutely no idea where it is.  Now I'll have a general idea using the balloon tracking predictors mentioned earlier, but if that's off by a mile or two, it will make searching for it very unpleasant (and finding it less likely).

LA County coverage map (boostmobile.com/coverage)

But after a quick check on the coverage map for the phone, it turns out I should be adequately covered at both the launch site in the desert and the general landing area in the IE.  There are a few splotches of "Fair" coverage which I will avoid if possible, but I'm pretty confident now that cell reception won't be a problem. Whew!