[topcat]

Up front, let me say that I do know the difference between AM and FM, but not not much else.

Looking into the future, what band radios, and what makes do you prefer?

Let me try and narrow this somewhat:

We have FRS (whatever that is) for local communication, which at some point we want to ask our nearest neighbors if they do too. This would be used for personal contact.

Do not know anything about HAMs and am guessing a HAM would be a bit more than we want to invest.

Seems that one question is which band(s) may be of more use in the future (SHTF). Many I have looked at offer the standard AM/FM and then either SW or TV. Go SW or TV? (Not looking to hear soaps, do like hearing 'breaking news' and also like the overseas opinion aspect of SW.) Have an old tube SW in my shop and do enjoy listening to it at the end of the day whist I quash a few cold ones!

To add to the mix, you have CB and VHF marine radio. We are close to navigable water and I have thought about a couple of handhelds but they are pricey.

Where do you see the most use being should we enter a "troubled period" of time? Sure, the illustriuos Emergency Broadcast shoud work over the AM/FM but I am a self-professed info junkie.

Another question is scanners. Type? Frequency? What should I look for? I like knowing what is going on nearby!

Bottom line, I'm looking for a bit of info and discourse.

[lawnchair]

Shortwave listening is but a shell of its former self. Lots of nutter evangelism and a few minutes of propaganda from the leadership of a few countries. You can hardly even get BBC World Service in most of North America.

Clear-channel (not the company) AM can be amazing at night. If you're interested in such things, find all the AM radios you can, and tune around from 600-1200 and 1500-1600 kHz in the late night. Different radios are better than others, but I've found some old cheap radios that are exceptionally directional (usually turning the whole radio... there's a ferrite bar in there... the collapsible antenna is often for FM only). From the Kansas City area, I regularly get WJR-Detroit, WSM-Nashville, KOA-Denver, CBW-Winnipeg (CBC Radio One) or XEFB and XET from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.

As for transmitting, CB has quite a bit of distance advantage over FRS and the like. With good antennas and good location... its a serious mode. I'm sure plenty of the people building illegal amplifiers in the boom-time still do, so that would boost things more.

I am a licensed ham. Local (VHF) communications are what you make of them. The advantage is the community of hams, many of whom are very bright, resourceful fellows. Since there are not many hams, any request for help is often jumped on by the people listening. Some groups are substantially integrated into the local emergency preparedness community.

For the other half of ham radio, distance communications, nothing has the inherent ability to get through, watt for watt, no matter what, like morse code on shortwave. Consider a situation like the family stranded in rural Oregon. I have a transceiver, built for under $50, in an Altoids tin... powered off a 9V battery, but possible to work with a bicycle headlight generator or a small PV panel. With that, tapping two wires together for morse code and a tiny earphone, I can make contacts hundreds of miles away. I have the above and a GPS in my glovebox.

[I_Like_Plants]

www.arrl.org
www.eham.net
www.rffun.com

Go thou and learn!! Shortwave is alive and well, ham is alive and well just that most ppl in the work-camp known as Amurrika are working so damn many hours they have little time for it, but it's there if you can be.

Popular Communications magazine, Monitoring Times, QST, all good ones, and at a good newsstand.

Ham Radio For Dummies book! No more morse code required (but you can sure use it if you like! and many do!) easier than ever to get your ticket, it's amazing we're still allowed to "ham" in the Empire, the way things are going, enjoy it while you can!

[topcat]

Thanks for the links.

Looks like a trip to some sort of Radio Shack is in order for me. Do some brain-picking.

[I_Like_Plants]

Go to www.rffun.com and order their catalog. And some books, too if you like but their catalog is a keeper! Go read the whole ARRL site, you don't need Radio Shack, you probably need a ham radio license and welcome to a lifetime of learning about this stuff - I'm a doomer but not about to send my last dit-dit just yet.