Well, all I can tell you is that my personal experience 11 days ago on the USS Bowfin was different.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Will my idevice work in a submarine.
- Thread starter kevinbomb123
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well, all I can tell you is that my personal experience 11 days ago on the USS Bowfin was different.
Based on your experience it would appear the Navy has installed some form of repeater.
i think the uss bowfin is retired and now a museum, at least that's what i remember when i was stationed in Pearl
so they might have a repeater onboard or close by as it's stationary
You are correct about it being retired and a museum, so I may have just picked the right submarine to take a phone call on.
Probably because that thing is ancient, and is a museum, and may have a repeater installed. If not, it's hull is a lot thinner than modern boats because those couldn't go very deep, and has a lot more openings topside. My personal experience is with commissioned nuclear submarines. I re-read the OP's post, and it's some sort of museum. I was thinking before it was a commissioned nuclear boat for some sort of naval training or tour for naval personell. Since it's just a tourist attraction, who cares? It's only for a little while. Don't worry about it and have fun.
I honestly can't tell whether the OP is a troll or just really unknowledgable, for lack of a better word that I can say without being given a warning.
How are we supposed to answer your question OP if you don't even tell us what sort of submarine and where? Though radio waves can't travel underwater so the answer would be no nonetheless.
How are we supposed to answer your question OP if you don't even tell us what sort of submarine and where? Though radio waves can't travel underwater so the answer would be no nonetheless.
The question is whether or not you could survive hearing the OOD saying "all stations, CONN, make preparations to submerge the ship"...
Considering that even the U.S. Navy sometimes has considerable difficulty communicating with its submarines, my gut answer would be that your iDevice has absolutely no chance of getting network coverage. Of course, apps that don't require network coverage will still work.
Last edited:
They do? I've been on 4 and there's NEVER difficulty getting messages to a sub, even underwater.
Oh, I'm sure they can now. But that's after the Navy's spent a ton of money on highly advance research to do that. I just can't see AT&T having the impetus to pull that off. And an iPhone's antenna is probably slightly smaller and less complicated than a sub's. (Heck, I don't even get proper AT&T signal on land a lot of the time.)
The Navy has been able to communicate with submarines for decades, man. Even while they are submerged. It's not exactly rocket science. They even have underwater telephones.
iDevices will work in submarines because they are magical and 5 years ahead of submarine radios
nothing else will work.
nothing else will work.
Huh? Submarines can transmit, as well. They just choose not to as transmissions give away their position.
I have to laugh how some times we trip over ourselves trying to give an answer to a question that is not clear. Answers flying all over the place, and the OP is nowhere to be found.
Happens on a few other boards I watch as well. Non techie stuff.
Unless Wikipedia is wrong (obviously could be), but hey, I'm not a sonar engineer, so it seems the transmission hardware necessary for very low and extremely low frequencies is simply too cumbersome. Apparently for extremely low frequency you literally have to stick two steel towers in the ground and use the earth as part of the antenna.
Then again, this could be completely wrong.
Is VLF the ONLY way to transmit and receive? I don't need to use the Wiki for that one. Just take my word as someone who's deployed on 4 subs, working in Radio/ESM that subs can transmit.
Please tell me you don't actually believe that. There are over 4500 metric tons of gold at Fort Knox.
I've been a submariner in the US Navy for over 26 years. Trust me on this stuff.
Correct. The only way to get 1 or 2 bars is to stand directly under one of the escape trunks or weapons shipping hatches.
Look, it's the fabled seatroll!
I highly doubt that Apple is using 1970's technology in their devices.
Correct. The only way to get 1 or 2 bars is to stand directly under one of the escape trunks or weapons shipping hatches.
Last time I was in a sub in the middle of the pacific somewhere I was getting 6-7mbps download with AT&T.
Those guys must have celltowers under water too
Look, it's the fabled seatroll!
I highly doubt that Apple is using 1970's technology in their devices.
Last time I was in a sub in the middle of the pacific somewhere I was getting 6-7mbps download with AT&T.
Those guys must have celltowers under water too
Nope, not underwater. But did you look closely at those "buoys" floating around out there ocean? Yeah, AT&T got the franchise rights.