I have recently become more aware of and generally interested in electronics and amateur radio, and it got me thinking. What advantage, if any, would there be to having amateur radio experience, over a simple disaster crank radio/flashlight, in the event of a major natural disaster or some other emergency that leads to a longer delay in power being restored? For the sake of argument, let’s assume you have a generator or battery bank to supply your own electricity.
CB radio is very low power and limited range. I had a CB in my Jeep for offroading. It wasn’t an ideal installation or an ideal antenna, but it was basically what most people driving a normal vehicle and not really serious about CB-ing would install.
It was good enough for the trail where I was 100 yards from friends but going down the interstate listening to trucks, I was basically limited to trucks I could see within a half mile or so.
With a 2 meter ham radio, the most common band that even beginners can use, and a lot simpler to install than CB, I can talk 20 miles fairly easily, twice that to reach some repeaters in the mountains.