Following a complete electrical failure; pilot of a Cessna 177 utilized a cell phone to establish communications with HNL Tower and return for landing.

Narrative

Clearance: cleared out of Class B at 1;500 FT MSL Freeway Departure. At 10 minutes into the flight; my Garmin 430 restarted and then failed causing me to lose communications with ATC and I immediately started to set my Communication #2. The lights were not bright enough to see on Communication #2; followed by a failure of communication #2. I tried to stay calm and check the CBs to see what was the problem; tried multiple times to restart the radios; tried to isolate one radio at a time to see if it was a short; also checking for smoke or anything out of the ordinary. Tried to reset the alternator; but nothing worked. Still moving at 100 KTS; I had to act quickly. I knew that I could not continue without communications with a TFR up. I set my squawk to 7600 and held near CKH VOR. I had a total electrical failure. I remembered I had HNL Tower's phone number in my cell. I used my cell to reestablish communications. I was told to climb to 2;000 FT and return via the freeway. ATC was nervous with the VIP inbound in HNL. I was also nervous. Very close to the airport; I lost communications on my cell; used a second cell phone to reestablish communications. I was then given instructions to land on Runway 8L; then Runway 8R. Requested Runway 4R; was denied; told Runway 8R confirmed Runway 8R 'near the ocean.' I was told to turn early. I was worried because I did not have any flaps. Tower gave me clearance to use the entire runway. I landed and maintained communications via the cell phone until parking. ATC could not see my squawk because I had lost all electrical power. Later; Maintenance checked out the aircraft and found that it was an Alternator Control Box failure. It was replaced. I contacted the FAA on the incident. Tower was pleased that communications were reestablished.