CB Radios Are Essential If There's No Cell Service In Emergencies

Above, a CB radio is essential if there's no cell service in the desert. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

A couple on an RV trip got lost in the Nevada desert. Searchers searched for days and finally they were found.

The husband died and his wife is now recovering after being found. 

According to RV Travel:

Earlier this week we wrote about RVers Ronnie and Bev Barker. The Indiana couple went missing, along with their motorhome, on a trip from Oregon to Arizona. As we posted, the couple were lost and stranded in the desert hills of Nevada. Since that initial post, more details have come into focus regarding the Barker’s tragic final trip together. Now it seems the couple’s GPS is taking some of the blame for the tragic outcome.

“SOS”

When searchers found the Barker’s motorhome on Tuesday, April 6, it was abandoned, stuck in the sand on a desert road. The family’s toad car, a Kia, was gone, presumably used by the couple after the motorhome got stuck. Searchers then worked on following the intermittent tracks left on the dusty roadway. After a couple of hours, they heard a car horn. It was signaling out “SOS.” The Barkers were found.

Beverly Barker was sitting in the front seat of the Kia, following some of the last instructions her husband, Ronnie, had given. With their cell phones out of range, he had told her to keep tooting the horn. Three short, three long, three short. Repeat.

While the media is focusing on the GPS, another aspect in the tragedy caught my attention. There was no cell phone service in the area where their motorhome got stuck. Had there been cell phone service in the area, they could both have been saved.

This also leads me to something else. Since there was no cell service, if they had a citizens band (CB) radio in their RV, they could have transmitted a call for help. It has not been reported if they had one or not.

When I bought my motorhome in 2015, one of the first things I bought for it was a handheld CB radio. Even though cell phones are widely used today, there are still areas where there is no coverage. With that in mind, that's why I bought my CB. A CB radio becomes essential in emergencies such as what the Barkers were faced with.

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