Coordinating with other CB Emergency Prep groups

[9FS1127]

I am a newbie on this site, and my intention is not to dilute the purpose of this forum by any means. I found this site because I was surfing Youtube and found a video from readiopreppers.com   - love the flag by the way :D.   I have been part of a Emergency Communication group in Canada. We have the bold plan to use relatively easy to aquire CB Radio but specifically on Side Band and wanting to mesh all the members across Canada. That group has members in the states and also in the UK etc.  thanks to Generous SKIP and a bit of amplification :D

[RadioRay]

CB radio for community communications certainly has a place. When I lived in a timber community south of Alberta in the U.S. State of Idaho, CB was one community 'intercom'.  The limiting factors are range ( usually less than ten miles on flat ground at best) and also the interference when ( as you mentioned) long range propagation was in.  Being drowned-out by mega power stations from a thousand miles away ruined our community use, often for days at a time, unless we were VERY close together and could reliably set the squelch to not listen to the interfering station coming into our little, secluded valley.  OTOH, up there, most people had CBs (AM was still most popular) so it is a good idea, most of the time. 

The hams among us used 2 meter FM with repeaters on mountain peaks for local/regional and also used the ham 60 meter band for a regional 'party line'.  This being in the frequency range of NVIS gave great communication capability in and out of the steep mountain valleys.  Very little flat land up there, so NVIS was essential to tie communities together. There was also a commercial HF (4.xxx MHz)radio community in use for decades, linked with the business of a local bush pilot.  Remote families could call to have the pilot's staff buy groceries and to fly them in to specific meadows/air strips in isolated areas.  I do not know if this is still operating in this era of cell towers, but it worked rather well.


Goos to see you aboard,

RadioRay  ..._ ._