yes, I forgot I have a little solar powered radio that always get an emergency station. I got that just after our big fire recently.
One thing I use often when our electricity goes out is my laptop I keep plugged in and charged, as my phone is darn good hotspot to use. It has to be kept charged of course, and depending on the towers it works off of not coming down for any reason. At least I can get message out letting relatives or friends know I'm headed your way. It would take a lot for me to be willing to go to any family, but I do have very close lifetime friends that would insist I come to their places, thank goodness. All of us are just getting old so who knows. I live alone so I would want to go somewhere if thing go really bad.
I wouldn't expect every household to have a person "into" this enough to stay with it long term. But most communities, small or spread out all the way up to urban might have one or a few. These could take a role of... town crier? ... small newspaper? in times of yore, at least disseminating information and fielding specific requests for assistance to pass on to responder volunteers. I like the idea of a GMRS radio with a good antenna. Such a setup could put out a broadcast signal that the community could listen in for using FRS (family radio service) transceivers that are already in a lot of homes. Most of the cheapie walkie-talkies sold for the last couple of decades are FRS band radios, and several FRS channels overlap with GMRS radio channels. https://www.rightchannelradios.com/blogs/newsletters/gmrs-radio-frequencies-and-channels See the chart there. Several overlapping channels permit 50 watts of output power for a GMRS licensee, and GMRS radios are allowed to have better antennas, extending their range even more. FRS radios don't require any license. I'm off in the weeds more than most will care about here. I don't propose the best plan, I just think GMRS/FRS might help reach that "last mile" to the general public. Add something like the 3-3-3 Plan procedures and maybe the "leaves" of the tree can be covered. There are also pure-broadcast options. FM broadcast or AM broadcast band transmitters can service very short ranges and be picked on cars radios and such. Once more, in serious long term scenarios "illegal" operation might mean using more output power and better antennas than legal FCC Part 95 usage allows day to day on those bands.
That's a smart strategy. Take action, get the jump on things, bug out - before things start to fall apart too far. Those services might fail, be co-opted or shut down. Roads could become impassable. Crazies might begin smash and grabs and car jackings. Admittedly some of that is pretty alarmist. I'd love to imagine people could keep their... act together better than that. So, good plan! But I was thinking more about how to prepare for Day 2, Day 3, Day 30 for communications in really awful situations.
Oh shoot, that was a HAM Radio class. I get all those types of communication devices mixed up @Yvonne Smith I thought HAM radio was the big one like my X had. he had a setup like your son's
Ham radio can be anything from very tiny QRP (low voltage) sets to very large like Yvonne's son has. The hand-held small sets are the most popular.
There is some type called CB (Citizen Band), I think that's the ones the truck drivers use right? I always wondered the history on Radio Free Europe. That fascinated me, but I never got around to really studying it. I wish we had a Radio like that system only for to good people of America so they could always hear the truth! I know, I'm just dreaming again
CB is a very short distance communication method, but good and easy. Here is a link to an radio on Amazon that would allow you to listen to a lot of stuff, including th weweather band and such. There are many others, and I don't know if this is the best but it is an example of a listening radio. LINK
Thank you Don I'm going to go look at it right now I need a better radio than this little tiny radio that gets one single channel during that big fire we had that was the only thing I had to the outside world for like I think it was three four days that doesn't seem long to too many people but it was a long time for us another thing I should mention is we are really a long long way from any major cities I think well the closest city is over the mountains about 5 hours away in Redding California and south of us is eureka and they don't have much of anything there bigger place but not much going on there at all then if you go up into Oregon you get there in 23 miles you're in Oregon but the closest larger cities are grants pass or Medford grants passes about 2 hours away from us roadwise so I don't know how much I can pick up here even from a good radio feedback on that welcome though
If you are in fire country, it is always good to have a way to keep track of things in case you want to evacuate before the order is given. Sometimes the order to evacuate is given too late and the roads get jammed, etc. As we move into fire season, we have to have things ready to go at a moment's notice. It was really bad when we were evacuated and had livestock to move and sled dogs to move, and all. Fortunately we had friends willing to take our family as we had to go. I don't know how many you have in your family, but as we age, the number of people for whom we are responsible shrinks. My wife and I only have a few chickens now and they will be left behind should we have to evacuate this spring. Anyway, listening to what is going on around you can save your life.
I just don't know what kind of a radio to buy give me a idea for a computer to buy I'll know exactly what computer to buy what I need power wise etc etc but when it comes to radio and living where I do on the Lost Coast I mean the closest major city I guess would be San Francisco it's closer than Portland Oregon and it's 400 miles away San Francisco is 400 mi away that's what I'm mean so if anybody's got a good idea for a good radio that I can pick up some stations on let me know and a decent size I don't want a little itty bitty pocket radio
Here is a radio that is still portable but will accept an antenna. A short one is provided, but here is a longer one on a reel.
That much I know because people in larger cities don't even need the cable to get most of their local TV channels and someone told me if I just got a really good antenna I could get TV channels from bigger cities well that was a big fat lie I never did get one because I talked to more people and they said that doesn't work so I ended up just I hate cable anyway so I just got streaming TV over my internet connection but yeah I mean it'd have to be a pretty exceptional radio I would think because why would that pick up a signal any better than a television antenna
Even that little antenna is 23 feet long. I think you could get good reception, but it is totally up to you. I have the same problem with TV reception, although I can get the main stations pretty well if the antenna is facing the right direction. When I had a big antenna up, I could receive from all over the world on short wave and the Ham bands even here. You may have mountains between you and TV stations, but, unless you are deep in a valley, you should be able to receive in several other directions.