"...get your ham license..."

Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't you only need the ham license to transmit? If all you want to do is listen, seems to me that you could buy a radio of any kind. And, in an emergency, you could probably even get away with transmitting. That said, I have been planning on getting the "no code," or whatever they are calling that nowadays, license for several years, just keep putting it off...