Went to the outlet malls in Jeffersonville OH. We left the malls planning to stop a couple exits North for food as the food court there didn't have anything that looked appetizing. On the way traffic suddenly came to a standstill. Turned on the CB and heard there was a Jeep pulling a trailer that lost control and hit an 18 wheeler. Heard that the corornet was on the way and we would be stopped until then. So I broke out the food stash and handed some back to the kids and plotted a detour on the gps and had to do a u turn through the median. Wife was ahppy I had a stash of food and water, was glad to have the CB to know what was going on. She asked what if i didn't have the GP so I told her I would use the paper maps that were stashed in a binder under the seat. I know there are some that are down on CB's saying FRS or GMRS are better but the CB still has a use for gathering intel along the roads as truck drivers still ue channel 19 (and with most running footwarmers you can get a lot of info for quite a few miles away).

A CB, a Scanner, a GPS, a stack of maps, and a 4WD with enough clearance. That will get you past a lot of problems.

Food and water, those are the easy parts. How many people keep some in their vehicles at all times?

I know I keep food and water - right now I have a full case - usually it's around 8 bottles

I don't have a scanner in the truck yet, have a handheld in the bob, I might have to make it part of the truck kit or get another for the truck. The gps isn't dedicated to the truck yet either but I take it any time we go anywhere, pulling it out of my bob, I may just start taking the whole bob. the CB, maps and 4x4 are always there as well as the rest of the kit in my GHB, food and water, some folding chairs, a 14 gallons of water in jugs, etc, etc, inclusing a kitchen sink.

Got GPS mount hard wired in, 40 channel CB with an el cheapo "stick on the glass" antenna, but it has all the range I need. Got all of our tent camping gear in the cross bed tool box, 2.5 gal of water (at least, usually more), food for 'bout three days, paper maps for whatever area we happen to be living in at any particular time. 'Bout a dozen Travel Jon's for my wife to use if necessary (between the two opened doors on the passenger side of the truck, with me blocking any view from the side. Any traveling female should buy a bunch of those). Handheld scanner with powercord and cig lighter inverter...

travel jons? Are those plastic grocery store bags?

My truck is the extended cab so the rear doors open opposite the front so those wotk well for blocking views even though they may not be the most handy in a parking lot (why is it that every Honda minivan that pulls in beside me always parks right on the line, are those that hard to steer?)

Just curious how useful are hand held scanners these days? I had thought that a lot of communities have been encrypting their police and fire traffic.

Any thoughts?

thanks -

Evan

AFAIK, most are moving to digital trunking, not encrypted. This means you should be able to listen to most via a digital trunking scanner. These are readily available, although a bit pricey.

-john

Travel John (I misspelled it before). My wife has used them for years tent camping, they work great. Crystals (or something) inside turns urine into a non-spill jell...

Around here the city is analog trunking which a $150 scanner can decode. The state wide system is digital trunked which requires a $500 scanner. Its not until you get to the big cities in paranoid states that encrypt so the scanner can still pick up a lot. Also the scanner can pick up more than the police/fire/ems, you can receive cb, noaa, ham, etc.