radiosurvivalist.com
Citizen's Band or CB is a radio that most people are familiar with and likely already have one if they do much camping and hiking. The CB radio is easy to purchase, you don't need a license to operate it and antennas are fairly small and easy find. So with all of these goods points you just know there are some bad points so here they go.
Most CB radios are AM (amplitude modulated) making them more susceptible to atmospheric noise. AM radios such as CBs are also easy to jam (block) thereby rendering them pretty much useless. Note that there are CB radios that also have SSB (single side band) modulation and these radios are generally more expensive than simple AM CBs.
CB radios have a low power output running in the 4 to 15 watt range. This is fine for mobile operation where vehicles are within a few miles of each other. Using a CB with a base station antenna helps it considerably but there are still times when the low output power will be detrimental.
CB radios are limited by the environment. Unlike amateur radios which can be switched to other bands a CB is limited to just the 11 meter band. Amateur radios have many bands in them allowing one to switch bands when the current one becomes unusable due to communications conditions. For instance, you might be operating on the 20 meter ham band most of the day and yet the band begins to fade as evening approaches. All you need do with a ham radio is switch to a band such as 40 meters or 80 meters which are better for night time operations. CB radios do not have these capabilities.
All that being said should one refrain from the use of a CB for survivalist situations? Absolutely not! You might even consider adding a CB radio to your current communications gear if you don't already have one. When the going gets rough you just can't have too many radios, so it could be a wise choice to add a CB radio on board. One thing about ham radios, especially those featured on these pages is that they have general coverage receivers in them. This feature allows you to listen to the CB band (27mhz) from one end to the other. As for transmitting on 11 meters, you will just have to test the radio first. Be forewarned though that it is against FCC regulations to transmit on CB bands with more than 5 watts ;) so be careful there.
