I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand your initial question. Shortwave radio is used to receive broadcasts in areas where local broadcasts are not available.

Jeanette Isabelle

That depends on what "stay connected" means to you. Local broadcasters would be likely to provided information required for managing the problems at hand. An EMP would render anything unshielded using semiconductors useless. That affects large parts of infrastructure. Apart from that many broadcasters limit their power and range to avoid interference.
Anyway a working receiver could be a valueable asset. Just be aware that it could turn out it has limits.
I even have a transceiver built into an Altoids can for emergency comms. It is limited to CW. With a big antenna it has a decent range.

To prepare for emergencies, we store our shortwave radio in a Faraday bag. In the event of a local blackout caused by a major incident, international broadcasts may be the only way to stay informed. It's likely that news of the incident would spread globally if it was significant enough.

Jeanette Isabelle

you asked if I still had access to local broadcasts.

I don't recall.

But I'm not sure anyone was using shortwave locally before an earthquake either. My point is, what I DID hear wasn't useful. And local AM/FM worked just fine.

If there is a disaster, what exactly do you plan to get out of a shortwave? It's not like the radio station half a world away is going to tell you where FEMA is handing things out.

In the event of a local blackout caused by a major incident, international broadcasts may be the only way to stay informed. News of the incident would likely spread globally if it was significant enough. An international broadcast would only say what happened, not what FEMA is doing.

Jeanette Isabelle

It may be difficult to persuade someone to prepare for emergencies if recent events have not convinced them to do so. Therefore, why would someone be interested in knowing where FEMA is distributing aid?

Jeanette Isabelle

I have a shortwave receiver which is version of the Kaito Electronic Inc,
Tecsun Digital PL368 AM/FM/LW/SW Worldband Radio with Single Side Band

The #1 reason I like this radio is that it's small enough to store in a shielded can. #2 is that it can be recharged via either a USB charging cable or you can remove the battery and charge it outside the radio. I have spare batteries so can go either way.

Receiver bands:
-FM: 64.0 – 108 MHz (4 ranges selectable)
-AM: 520 – 1710 kHz (Tuning step 9/10 KHz selectable)
-LW: 153 KHz to 513 KHz
-SW: 1711 HHz to 29999 KHz

I use it primarily for AM broadcast. It has an internal AM antenna but it also has an AM antenna jack on the top of the radio and a removable external coil antenna which rotates. That small antenna is able to reduce noise and clean up an AM signal quite well by simply rotating to align with the strongest/cleanest signal.

A shortwave long wire antenna clips to the FM antenna if you prefer SW.

FM broadcast is very local, but while some AM stations I've heard are in the state, they aren't necessarily local; AM Clear-Channel stations have lots of power and can have very long range. The SW I've received here seems irrelevant to any emergency and receiving is too dependent on skywaves and such. IMO it's not reliable enough and AM is a better option.

Do a google on "North American ClearChannel AM Radio Stations" and one of the links you'll find is at wikipedia -- Clear-channel_station That wiki-page has a list of "Class A (former I-A/I-B) stations". Since in an emergency the internet may not be available, I compiled station data from different sources (including wiki) and have it stored on my laptop and tablets. I can recharge all electronics using solar panels and power banks.

Transceivers here are all GMRS. I recommend you get a licence, easy and not expensive. It's another good to have option; better to have and not need.

FYI: I did a post about portable solar panels so yeah, I also recommend solar to recharge small devices. YMMV

Like Chaosmagnet, I'm also a radio nerd, licensed on ham radio, GMRS and a lot of other things. I agree 100% with the "SW is last on the list" view.

I've always been at a loss to understand the "we need a SW radio in case of an EMP which will devastate all electronics, so you better get some...electronics...to listen to the SW broadcasts that require...electronics...to function.

Let's skip over that part and go into all the reasons why SW radio is the least optimal choice for almost everyone:

1) It's finicky. That signal you heard just fine 15 minutes ago just faded away. Why? Because (insert long list of reasons).

2) To cover a large area, it requires a HUGE antenna connected to a powerful transmitter to be of any use on the TRANSMIT side, that is unless you DON'T want to cover a large area, in which case atmospheric conditions will align so your signal is skipping through the ionosphere from Washington CD to Florida, but you can't reach the person 5 miles away.

3) When it does work, it's prone to noise from any number of things, like LED lights, lightning that is far far away, and so many other things.

There are more reasons, but these are my majors.

Here's some relevant information about SHARES and how it might intersect SW radio:

https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/shares-documents

From whom do you expect to get "local" SW "broadcasts" ?

To be clear: It's not like NBC and ABC have the equipment needed to get onto SW frequencies.