I love the "Get a hand radio so if the cell network goes down like it did in 911 you can communicate with your family" advice. If followed that means EVERYONE will have one and with only what 20somthing? channels there would be no ability to even use them over the amount of chatter from the 100s if not 1000s of people on the same channels. Its hard enough to use them on a family vacation without running into other people ont he same channels.