Congrat's on your ticket! I haven't been active in years, but, I still keep the license current, and have the capability to get on the air. Once in a while, we'll have a storm, lose power, phones down, cell phone service down, etc, and I can still hit the local repeaters that are all running on generators with my 2M/440 Icom HT. Most of the repeaters seem to still have phone patches to the landline, just in case.

I have a nice Kenwood HF rig, but, it hasn't had an antenna since we moved. Still, it wouldn't take long to string my old wire dipole in the backyard if needed.

73 - N1GFS