Eton makes a range of emergency preparedness radios - hand cranked and/or solar charged. They tend to be pretty decent within their price range. Unfortunately, most "survival" receivers on the market these days aren't all that great performance-wise, and in my experience many are far less robust than one would expect from a radio intended for hard use.

A compact battery powered World Band receiver may cost a little more, but it will provide far better reception and many useful extra features. There are many excellent options out there. The good old Sony ICF-7600 is still the gold standard by which all comparable products are judged. I bought a Sony clone marketed by Radio Shack back in the 90's. It's an awesome receiver considering the size of the package. Power consumption is very low, especially with headphones (which I prefer to the speaker anyway).

I would warmly recommend the ICF-7600 or any similar WB radio to anyone looking for an easily portable AM/FM/SW receiver (~$100 range). As long as it has a digital PLL receiver, auto tuning and some memory channels to save your favorite frequencies you should be good to go. FM/AM radios work well in terms of local coverage, but SW opens up a whole new world of global communication.

The Eton Microlink I own (AM/FM/WX, no SW) is surprisingly good for how small and inexpensive it is.

I have a Tecsun PL-310et which is outstanding, and I did a review of the Countycomm GP-5 DSP at http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.ph...rue#Post264506. It's been replaced by the GP-5 SSB, which is very similar (if a bit more expensive than when I wrote the review)

Absolutely. The Tecsun PL-660 is another interesting option. More expensive (~$130) than the 310 but it really offers a lot for the money.

I have the CountyComm GP-5 DSP and agree that it is a very good radio. I keep mine in my truck's kit without batteries installed. Batteries are stored with it but not in it. I like this radio for this kit because no matter where I am, the scanning function will bring in every station available and then you can tune through them without listening to the noise between stations. Nice feature.

I like the GP-5 DSP, too. The optional clip-on long-wire antenna makes a huge difference in reception. CountyComm has a newer model (GP-5 SSB) that I'm itching to get...

So inbound, agree with Eton radio.
Outbound, either a phone with texting, or a tablet with cellular.
texting is 1/50th the bandwidth of calling, and can slip through in any lull.

A twist on this- If you have one of the kindles that has a cellular connection- you already have a basic ability to do this- there is a browser built in- Not PRETTY, but works.

Plus, WAY GOOD battery life.

Unrelated tip- look for refurb tablet at places like cowboom or newegg--
today 12-7-15 cowboom has a older model Galaxy Tab 3 Verizon 3g for 34.99 U.S.

One reason I got the new iPhone in the Plus size is the bigger display which makes for easier texting, but it also comes with a much bigger battery. Talk time of up to 24 hours on 3G for the Plus compared to 14 hours for the standard size iPhone.