I just saw a great movie except for the ending (I confess most people thought the movie sucked) on Netflix called "How it Ends" and one thing I don't have is a Short Wave Radio with NOAA which was mentioned in the movie. Is this item a must to have especially if I would be leaving my home? It's hard to fit anything else in my Bug Out Backpack. Your thoughts and any that you'd recommend. Note I do have an AM/FM radio and a digital compact TV that is the size of the old Cassio ones.
What's NOAA going to be broadcasting, I have a NOAA receiver, it does burst to life from time to time telling me to take shelter, that a storm with high winds is approaching. It's wrong about 90% of the time. You do need a Ham Radio and generator backup power for it, and a ham license so you know how to use it before you need to use it. Rancher
If 'twas me? I'd grab a Baofeng hand-held off Amazon. Search for "Chirp", and pull down that app to program it. You can have all the NOAA frequencies, a lot of local first responder channels, GMRS/FRS/MURS, and use it for HAM VHF work if you get your license. All for about $40... Edit: HamStudy.org: Cutting edge amateur radio study tools
Exactly.... As a monitoring device in the event of TEOTWAWKI would be a definite asset. Knowing where your friends are, where those who are not your friends are, knowing where you might find water or other resources and how those resources are being defended, could be of great value.
Both the Baofeng and the Wouxun are great little cheap radios. Upgrade the antenna (or build one for cheap) and increase your transmit distance a far cry. NOAA may be good depending on the type of emergency and duration, but TEOTWAWKI...I don't think they are going to help much beyond the first 36-72 hours, the last half of which will be reruns of the last recorded broadcast unless they have some sort of automated temp/wind/weather. The cheap Chinese radios, like Lancer said, are great in that they can pick up FM broadcast stations, the NOAA channels, other weather broadcasts, GMRS/FRS/MURS(maybe) and will likely be more useful long term until you can't recharge them anymore. I agree with azrancher...get your Ham ticket (Extra here, and if I can do it, anybody can do it). With regards to the "government broadcast", not all government agencies are criminally inept and/or negligent. NOAA is (in my mind) one of the few that actually brings value. 99% of the NOAA broadcasts are automated and directly "data driven", so personally I don't find them suspect. "Government" broadcasts will likely NOT be on a band that you can receive unencrypted, so it probably won't do you much good there. It might be good to pick up broadcasts for where food/water is being dropped off or made available, but that doesn't mean I'll show up to get the food and water. Like has been mentioned, it would be good to know where not to be.
The Short Wave/NOAA Radio is fine for what it is.... Gives one the ability to listen to "Out of Country" Broadcasts AND NOAA Emergency Wx related Broadcasts.... But it will NOT let you listen to any of the local Radio Traffic from Analog First Responders, and FRS/GMRS/MURS, CB, or Ham Radio Traffic that is all within 50 Miles of your Apartment.... You need to decide what is more likely to be important to YOU, if you NEED Information about what is Happening in your World... I am talking about Plain Receiving of Radio Information, here.... Ham Radio and a License gives you all the above, plus the Go Ahead to operate on the Ham Bands and transmit questions to fellow Hams about what you are interested in finding out, Information Wise... This subject gets pretty Technical, REAL FAST, so a bit of learning, needs to be accomplished before you get to the point of deciding on equipment you will need to accomplish your Information Goals.....
As with so much related to "prepping", the first question shouldn't be "Which piece of equipment should I buy?". The first question is one that only you can answer (but may want to get some input from others on), and should be "What am I trying to accomplish?". How far are you wanting to get signal from? Local (under 20 miles) Intermediate (20-100 miles) National International Space Station (no, I'm not kidding) What type of information are you hoping to get? Weather News "Official" information Relayed situation reports Will you ever want to broadcast yourself? Part of a group General broadcast Distance What type of geography does your area have? Hills Flat Water "Damp" soil/high water table Trees What restrictions will you encounter? Height restrictions Power restrictions Visibility restrictions Yours HOA What kind of signal(s) do you want to be able to receive? MF (AM, HAM bands) HF (Shortwave, CB (10m), HAM bands) VHF (FM, local weather radio, some Land Mobile, Maritime "Marine" band, some HAM bands) UHF (FRS, GMRS, HAM bands) Unless you are looking for someone to validate what you think you already want, for whatever reason, which we unfortunately see a lot. Hopefully you aren't already in the "I need this thing because it's the thing I think I need because...THING!" phase. If that's the case, just buy it and get it out of your system. If you are looking for guidance on buying something for a purpose, fully understand your purpose prior to focusing on the "tech". What are you trying to accomplish, and almost as importantly...why? Then start looking at tools to help you accomplish the task(s) at hand.
I looked these up and they seem really good but does that mean you do not need short wave radio? Also in regards to Ham Radio, in regards to the beginning of TEOTWAWKI, unless you have a friend who is also on HAM Radio or people don;t know it is TEOTWAWKI, aren't you better off not letting strangers know about you?
I suppose it is a waste of time to point out that those units are "short wave" radios in the conventional sense. Your sense of "short wave" could be something else, dunno.
Something else to put in the back of your head: A large percentage of the LEO such as State Police and Muni forces currently use encrypted, and trunked systems. In a real SHTF/TEOTWAWKI event these systems will become degraded as the base gennies run out of fuel, and the land-lines they use for regional trunking start dying off. When that occurs they will all be forced back to the simpler analog systems...
Scanner: Scanners... You want one that can scan TT. The Pro-528 is an awesome portable, handheld scanner. Too bad Radio Shack went belly up. I don't even know if you can buy these anywhere besides Ebay or used across internet forums. SW Radios: Grundig are good radios, lots to choose from. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEFYF4M/?tag=survivalmonke-20 Clip-on antenna: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00066Z9XG/?tag=survivalmonke-20 Add to any AM/FM/SW radio antenna, boost reception. Small, portable, retractable. Baofeng: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0772FYKK8/?tag=survivalmonke-20
Given the price, there is no reason a prepared person should be without one of the Baofeng UV5R that Broker listed. I've got a pair of them and a General license and, if I ever get off my backside, I will get my Extra license. Nevertheless, even without a license a simple radio such as this could be a life saver. Information is power, it's as simple as that. I know people in this area that 10-20 of them, to be used for trade or etc. I'd be interested in purchasing a scanner. Perhaps we should open a new post on it since that 'Scanner' post was made in 2015 and lots can happen in a few years...
Even BS is better then silence in some cases. In events people are isolated they will listen to any thing just for the comfort of knowing there is some one living and breathing. Two way is a serious risk if there are those with the knowledge of how to triangulate on them . if you are concerned ,keep your transmission very short . I have been the rabbit on T hunts and good hunters are tough to hide from .
Personally I wouldn't transmit under conditions like WROL/TEOTWAWKI more than once from the same location and they sure wouldn't be clustered around my current bug out/in location. Hell, I might even pick someone I don't like (like a collaborator) and make my transmissions in a perfect circle around their location.
It's hard to be stealthy if T hunters know what to look for. Having had ELT training for S&R one person can find a transmitter alone easy. Regular hams know one another by voice , and for me it's always a surprise to first see the face that belongs to the voice. it's never what you think .
Depends on what you need, we use 2-Way radios a lot on our farm so the Baofeng UV-5R was a good place to start, FM/Weather/Ham/2-Way + a handy little flashlight for $25.
