Destiny Survival

            You desperately need to talk to your friend Jerry who lives just two miles away.  There’s no electricity for miles around.  Cell phone service is out.  Regular phone service is questionable at best.  What few radio stations are left on the air are repetitiously droning outdated information.

            You remember Jerry suggesting at one point that you each should have a portable CB radio you could operate on battery power.  In fact, he suggested using solar charged batteries.  The idea seemed pretty weird at the time.  Nothing like this could ever happen, you thought.  Surely, someone will be along to fix things, but the nightmare goes on.  It’s been days, and there’s no relief in sight.

            It’s all coming back to you now as you sit swatting flies away.  You remember Jerry describing such a CB radio he saw on the Internet.  What was the brand name?  Something about a snake?…Oh, yes!  It was a Cobra HH Road Trip CB radio.  It wasn’t just for Citizens Band reception either.  It had complete access to 10 National Weather Channels (7 NOAA and 3 International) for the latest weather information.  That would have been helpful to have.

Jerry seemed pretty excited about this handheld radio for a while, but you were the proverbial wet blanket.  Why didn’t he buy one anyway and try it out?  Why didn’t you buy one?  Cobra’s HH Road Trip would have given you 40-channel communication.  This handheld CB radio would have been ready to travel anywhere.   You could have been talking with Jerry right now with the radio’s four-mile range from its 4 watts of power.  That’s all you would have needed.  Jerry said it was easy to operate, too.  Even his 73-year-old technology challenged  uncle had no trouble operating his.

Jerry said you should have gotten CB radios for that last camping trip.  You wouldn’t have had to use full power at close range.  The HH Road Trip has a High/low power switch that reduces power consumption, which would have extended battery life during those times when high power isn’t needed.  Jerry thought it was neat that the radio operates on nine AA batteries, either alkaline or rechargeables.   Of course, it would have also worked off your car or truck battery through the supplied DC cord with the cigarette-lighter plug.  No problem about an antenna either, since it would have had an included magnet-mount antenna to ensure maximum range.  Heck, the Cobra HH Road Trip was even modestly priced, too.

Awful smells are wafting in from every direction as you sit pondering.  You wish you could talk to Jerry.  It’s not safe just now to leave the house.  Your shotgun lies across your lap.  Are any authorities or relief workers ever coming?  You realize that any trucks still on the road and using CB radios would have perhaps given valuable information, but you can’t even listen in now.  What were you thinking?

Were you afraid of being laughed at?  Maybe that’s it.  You didn’t want your cousin Steve to accuse you of being nostalgic for the 1970’s, back when CB radio was some kind of silly craze.  Or maybe it was Frank at work who said the only way to go in emergencies is ham radio.  He said you’re just playing games if you’re not licensed and can behave as a professional emergency communicator.  Jerry said to do whatever works.  He tried to convince you that all those communications rules about licenses are out the window if things really go to hell anyway.  Now you’ll never know.

            Yes, you were the wet blanket, but Jerry didn’t push the issue either.  Maybe he could have borrowed his uncle’s Cobra HH Road Trip CB radio.  You weren’t about to tell Jerry this, but late one night you sneaked a peek at a blog that had a logo you could click to see the info he told you about.  It took you to an Amazon page where it was so easy to order, too.  Still, you didn’t do it.  Why not?  If only you could now.