Emergency - The Citizens Band - 27 MHz 11 Meters Open Channel Radio

CITIZENS BAND IN AN EMERGENCY

It is well known that internet, the telephone networks and mobile phone networks could fail due to high demand, technical fault, sabotage, or even be closed down by the authorities during times of national emergency or crisis such as flooding, storm damage or, perhaps, terrorist attack. For this reason it is extremely sensible to keep a CB radio with antenna and power supply handy for use should the worst happen. You never know, you might not need it, but should all else fail, a CB radio could be the only link to the outside world.

Mobile - out and about in your car, van,truck or other transport.

Investing in a CB radio for the car or van would be inexpensive; about £55 for a mobile CB radio, £10 for an antenna and £10 for a simple to install 'mag-mount' to fit the antenna to. There are a number of small CB radios that are small enough to stow away inside the passenger compartment. The antenna and mag-mount is easily stored in the boot along with the spare wheel. An Orbitor / Springer antenna is extremely flexible (and almost indestructible) and can be bent into a circle to fit around the spare wheel.

At Home - keep in touch with members of your family or other people in your locality who are using mobile CB radios.

All that is required is an inexpensive mobile CB radio (as above); a simple and inexpensive antenna (with 50 ohm coaxial connecting and plugs), such as a dipole or 'silver rod', or smaller alternatives; a mains power supply to convert mains power to the required 13.2 volts that mobile CB equipment requires.. It would also be advisable to have some kind of battery back-up, such as a UPS (un-interruptible Power Supply) for when the mains power fails.

Hand-Held CB Radio

The alternative is to use a hand-held CB radio - these are small, neat and self-contained.

Hand-held CB radios do, however, demand quite a lot of battery power from the fairly low capacity internal batteries. Accordingly it would be necessary to hold a good number of spare (charged) batteries in reserve. The spare batteries would be required as a back up because when the mains power fails it would be impossible to re-charge them.

It is worth noting that hand-held CB radios are more expensive than a good basic mobile radio and have a more limited range due to their small antenna, though it is possible to connect a hand-held CB to a full size antenna, which would then give the same range as a larger CB radio.

Shown on the right is a Midland Alan 42 hand held CB radio.

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