Oh my, I haven't posted here in a while since I was busy finishing grad school (yay!), but this thread caught my attention.

I think some of the info in this thread is slightly misleading, so I wanted to throw in my $.02.

In my humble opinion, for the typical person a small, inexpensive battery operated AM/FM radio is more than sufficient for emergency needs. NOAA reception is a fine bonus, but you can certainly manage without it. Most modern radios get well over 100 hours of continuous play on a single set of batteries. (Just for example, my C.Crane CCRadio gets 250 hours on one set.)

I tihnk the rechargeable crank radios are largely a gimmick, as *all* current rechargeable battery technologies have very finite life spans. (In other words, the rechargeable batteries entirely die after some period of time and become useless.) I collect radios, so I do have a Freeplay Plus, among others with built-in generators, but I'm not particularly impressed by any of them. I definitely prefer disposable lithium batteries (10 year shelf life) or alkalines as a power source for emergency use. (CostCo sells alkaline AA's in 24 packs for $10.)

Also, just for information's sake, your car's radio is probably the best one you own, unless you are seriously into radios. This has to do with it having a better antenna, a better ground plane, its being outdoors, and the fact that car manufacturers tend to put excellent radios into cars. Also, in case you aren't aware, AM signals can travel enormous distances at night (this phenomeon is called DX), which is why you should be sure that your emergency radio has AM reception. You can hear halfway across the country on AM at night, so you'll be able to get news even if all your local stations are down.

As for getting a fancier type of radio, I think they are total overkill for most people. The "DC to daylight" reference above is a HAM radio term for wideband radios that cover many legal frequencies bands (e.g., MW/HF/VHF/UHF). I just don't see the point for the average person to buy one of these expensive radios. This is all the more so since 9/11, when so many state and local governments have moved to trunked or digital systems which are inaccessible to general wideband receivers like the ones mentioned above. (The dubious wisdom of this move and the waste of tax-payer money it represents is perhaps best saved for some other thread of forum.)

As for getting the latest type of scanner, which can receive/decode the more modern transmission modes, they are fairly complex to learn to operatate, program, and keep up to date. I think most people's preparation time is better spent elsewere unless you enjoy this type of thing. I don't happen to think monitoring the police/EMS/fire bands is of critical importance in most emergencies. Your local AM news station is probably more informative. And unless you're willing to take the substantial time in advance to understand what you'll be hearing, how to interpret it, and how to use your radio, you won't benefit from a scanner. It is not something you can figure out at a moment's notice.

I'll add for background that I'm a ham, active in ARES and NTS (those are amateur radio groups), a long-time DX'er, never leave the house without either a Yaesu VX-7 or a VX-2, and almost always carry a Uniden 396T, which is the current king of the consumer-grade portable scanning world. I've also hand-built my own radios (not from a kit), so I'm not anti-radio by any stretch of the imagination. Nonetheless, I don't think most people need to bother with anything beyond AM/FM for information gathering purposes. (For the most part, forget about shortwave these days -- it's for entertainment, not news.) Also, if you happen to have XM or Sirius, you can get CNN (and other networks') audio feeds which is great too, although my portable XM unit eats through batteries like they're going out of style.

Finally, I'll add that I *do* think everyone should get a ham radio license to communicate with family and friends in the event of an emergency, but that's a topic for some other thread.

Glad to be back!
Fitz