Well, as a guy who drove truck for almost 15 years, channel 9 is the emergency channel, it is monitored 24/7 BUT you must be within radio range, depending upon the terrain, with a standard off the shelf CB from Radio Shack and a standard whip antenna your range is about a mile, that is with no hills, trees, mountains, good cloud cover (radio waves bounce off clouds).
If you are down in a valley, forget it.
Channel 19 is the channel that all the truckers use, we used 19 and the company channel was 10, so when we convoyed we all used channel 10 to talk so that we didnt clog up 19.
Not to many truckers are going to stop to help you, to many high jackings.
Unless your in a skirt with a huge rack anyway.
A CB is good if you are off roading with others so that you can talk, "hey Joe, theres a big tree in the way..."
"Joe, be-careful coming down this hill, its really slippery"
But as for calling for help, you are better off with a cell phone and hiking boots.
If you have a souped up CB like a friend of mine, over $2000 in radio, mic and antenna, you can reach over 5 miles on flat ground.

 

I should add, channel 18 might be the tow truck channel in your area, but outside your city it could be any of the other 40 channels.
Citizens Band radio is free for anybody to use and anybody can use any channel that they want EXCEPT channel 9, that is the 911 channel.

 

Nawwwwwwwwwwwwz

 

I just had to include you Joe, didnt want you to feel left out.

 

what chuuu talkin bout willis?

 

When I am running on the highway alone I monitor 19 and occasionally talk to trucks on the road. At my last job we always used 13 in convoy, and we convoyed everywhere we went. I like to use 27 for my off road group or convoy in my personal vehicles.

I have a 9 foot antenna off my rear bumper and I get about a 4 mile range depending on the terrain. I have my antenna and radio tuned so there is next no resistance in the antenna system. And my radio is a 13 year old Cobra 29 that works better than a brand new radio.

I am currently talking to a local shop to build me a light bar to go across above the windshield and hold 4 off road lights. They quoted $100 for the bar and then I'll just pick up some cheap lights until I can afford better lights. May be a little over the $200 limit set by the OP but not by much.

 

A Cobra 29 is one hell of a good radio.
Its huge, but good.
I also had a Cobra but it was a lesser model but I had dual Firestik's.
All I cared about was getting smokey and chicken coop reports, other than talking to my friends in convoy anyway.

 

i had an antenna for my cb mounted on my roof rack, until i went haulin azz into a casino parking garage and snapped that sucker off... now i have a smaller much more flexible one, and i mounted my radio on my overhead bin, just above the interior light so its up out of the way...

 

Another good mod if you keep anything dirty in the trunk a lot is you can pull up the trunk carpet and sound material (you may notice a little more road noise, I did it and I barely noticed a difference and I have musician's ears) and put down some Herculiner. It's like cheap Rhino Liner, still does the job, but only costs like $30 a can. I did the whole trunk with half a can, and I plan on doing all the floors once my Disco is a trails only rig.

 

picture of the $30 grill please?

how difficult was the carpet remove and rhino-line?