I am set on stacking and food, water ..... but what about an emergency radio? I am seeing solar, hand-crank, recharegable ........ AM/FM/SW/NOAA ....... what are your thoughts and experiences? Thanks pedes:)
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Another idea just hit me:) What about one that has a police scanner too? What better way to find out what is going on than listening to what the cops are doing?
A police scanner would be an awesome addition. Not only police, you will be able to listen to hams and FRS/GMRS/CB radios. You might need a scanner with trunk tracking or digital voice depending on where you live. Some, maybe most of them now, have a feature to find nearby signals. That would help you to find what channel your neighbors are using. Or possibly alert you to a coordinated attack. Most police scanners do not do AM/FM/SW.
There is another category of radio, the wideband receiver. They can receive almost all widely used frequencies, AM/SW/CB/FM and those received by police scanners. They usually don't have trunk tracking. Many HAM radios include wideband receive capability.
Rechargeable batteries loose charge over time and also loose their ability to hold charge, so give preference to radios with an option to use AAs. If you can get an AA holder and attach the right plug to the wires that should work too. The AA batteries have a shelf life of 10 years so they'll be ready Don't store batteries in your radio for a long time. They will leak.
Radio monitoring is a fun hobby if you like learning about technology. The self-study material for a ham radio license is a great place to start for learning more about radio. Having a crank/solar/AA radio around is not a bad idea.