On the way to and from Burning Man and possibly other regional events, cell phone service can be sporadic or non existent. This is especially true in the remote highways

of Nevada. There are two options that people have for car to car communication. One is the CB radio and the other is FRS/GMRS.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these. On the highway CB radio is king. Nearly every professional trucker has a CB radio. They can be found talking to each other on Channel 19 or 21 on every major highway. Channel 19 tends to be the most common in the western US, especially in remote areas. Because of the huge number of these radios in operation on highways, the chances are very good that if you are broken down, the next truck going by you will be able to ask for help. Or at least have them call for help for you in the next town. Another advantage is the emergency channel 9 system that is still monitored in many parts of the US. Simply tune to channel, 9 on your CB and call for help.

Disadvantages to CB radio, is that it does take some knowledge, an antenna tuning (SWR) meter and some tools to properly install one and make it work well and have good signal range. There are no CB antennas made that you can simply attach to your vehicle and expect decent performance without tuning. In fact in some cases you can damage the radio if talk on it without the antenna being tuned properly. Along with that, the exact location of the antenna on the vehicle makes a huge amount of difference how well it will work. Another disadvantage is the price. A new entry level radio, good antenna and mount will cost you at least $100.00. Then you have to get the antenna tuned for your vehicle. On the other hand, if you shop around at garage sales you can find used CB’s for as little as $5.00. If you find one don’t shy away from an older 23 channel unit. For simple highway use, you will not need a 40 channel radio. Just make sure it includes the microphone and power cord.

New CB’s and antennas can be found at truck stops and travel centers across the US. You can also find them on line from many suppliers such as www.copper.com and www.firestik.com . The Firestik site has lots of useful information on antenna installation.

The FRS/GMRS radios can and are used for car to car communication. The advantage is that they are cheap, starting at $25.00 for a pair. They require no extra antenna and run on batteries. Along with that lots of Burning Man attendees already have a set and no how to use them.

Disadvantages for FRS/GMRS on the highway are lack of range, especially when they are used inside a car or truck. For entry level, cheap FRS radios expect less than 300 yards range from car to car. Another disadvantage is that truckers and most other motorists don’t use them or monitor them. Even if they did there is no standard channel they monitor. However that is changing. There is a new National FRS emergency service on Channel 1. Remember, because of the type of radio and low power output your ability to contact anyone outside of a metro area is small. More info on the FRS emergency service can be found at this link, http://www.dcradio.org/mission.html

So what to do? If you already have FRS/GMRS radios and are traveling in a convoy to the event and back, then by all means use them. We’d like to standardize the frequency that burners use on the highway to FRS channel 4, no subcodes. This way we can chat as we pass each other along the trip. For CB’s we’d like to standardize the use of channel 23 for on highway chat so we don’t bother the truckers. Why not just use CB channel 4 like the FRS? This is because the lower channels tend to have high levels of propagation interference making it quite annoying for on highway usage. Also channel 23 is the highest channel on many older CB radios.

If you have any questions feel free to drop me a note at gltaylor2 at Comcast dot net.