I would not bother to buy any radios that cost more than $40 or so at this point.

Here's why.

1. Emergency communications are going Digital & Trunked. Here in Bucks County, we're on an APCO-25 Digital Radio system, running on 500 Mhz. This system (which sucks eggs, by the way) requires a digital scanner to pick up the signals, and many places are going with encrypted digital comms. Trunked systems are very, very common.

2. Terrestrial Television is going Digital on Feb 19th 2008, and your TV audio receivers will be useless.

3. Shortwave radio is mostly used for COTHEN and similar network traffic, but for serious communications, satellite Phones and data networks are the favored tool.

4. Weather Radio and some other VHF traffic will still be there (NY City is still on a conventional, analog, VHF system for Fire Department and Police Department traffic) but all in all, for the rest of the US and Canada, it's going Digital, and quickly.

The new 700 Mhz systems will be totally different from current systems, and those will be going online soon too.