There are always lots of discussions about the use of CBs and other radios at a Gathering. Because of the level of possible acuity at the Annual Gathering of the Tribes, radio communications are essentially. In the past this systems has broken down for various reasons, including such things as people walking off with the base radio, running our of batteries and, even when the radio is working well, no one at CALM is listening.
At the Annual, it is essential that a well maintained communications system is in place with specific people monitoring the radio 24 hours a day. Presently we are working with the Radio Crew to upgrade our technical systems and to get a committed group of folks to monitor the CALM base radio. Most of the senior CALM crew also have personal radios and are on-call for medical emergencies when they are not at the CALM unit.
The usage of radios at Regionals is more problematic. A lot of people think that the use of radios is “very unRainbow” and just get in the way of the Rainbow experience. Certainly a noisy CB has no place in a OM circle. Most Regionals are small enough where runners can get to CALM if necessary. However, at a very large Regional, like the 1990 Ithaca Regional where we had 5000 people, the use of radio communications may be essential.