Get a Ham liscence! Being able to know that they are searching for you by listening is useless unless you can get on the air and tell them where to find you. Of course if you are involved in E&E you won't want to turn on any transmitter for fear of detection. E&E is not part of our topic here though. Further if there is a real emergency you will get the most up-to-date information from monitoring the Ham frequencies since they are the considered and lisenced to replace conventional communications for the emergency responders. A scanner is only half of the answer. The ability to call for help is the other half. Check out these links for instances where it would be informative to listen on the Ham frequencies. <br><br>Amateur Radio Station, W4EHW, at the National Hurricane Center <br><br>Hurricane Watch Net<br><br>SKYWARN:<br><br>Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Net (SATERN): <br><br>The Waterway Net:<br><br>recent activations<br><br>Press Releases<br><br>From this information you will quickly learn to turn to the ham bands just as the reporters that you hear on FM and AM bands do when you want to know what is going on. Why not get the information first hand rather than predigested and sensationalized and most likely incorrect from the FM / AM news broadcasters whose interest is more aligned with ratings than truth?