The Role of the Citizens Band Radio Service and Travelers Information Stations in Civil Preparedness Emergencies.

This is the final report on a project to assess the capabilities of the Citizens Band CB Radio Service and other services in the Personal Radio Services and of Travelers Information Stations TIS to provide emergency communications for civil preparedness operations. The project determined the range of uses currently made of CB and TIS. Determining current uses of CB involved surveying state and local civil preparedness agencies, state police and state highway patrol agencies, and volunteer CB organizations. The project identified formal and informal CB organizations and evaluated their utility in emergency operations. Among the formal organizations evaluated were REACT International, Inc., and ALERT Section, American Citizen Band Operators Association, Inc. The project evaluated the role of DCPA in providing guidance and direction in the use of CB and TIS in emergency situations. The project also evaluated miscellaneous aspects of CB such as 1 uses made of CB by truckstops, 2 applications of CB by the National Weather Service SKYWARN program, 3 impact of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration National Emergency Action Radio NEAR program on emergency operations, and 4 appropriate functional relationships between CB and amateur radio including the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, RACES in emergency operations.