I’ve noticed that a lot of television shows and movies that are being shown these days have an end of the world type theme to them.  On each show a bomb goes off, a meteor hits the earth, or aliens land in their spaceships and start blowing things up.  luckily for the main characters, they always have a radio on hand to find out any relevant information from the government or whoever is now running the show.  It made me think about what type of radio I should have in case of an emergency.  I’m sure we all used to have an AM/FM radio with our tape players, but with the new technology of CDs and MP3s I think that radios are being used less.  There are also four different bandwidths for radio now, so I wanted to find out which would be the best option.  This is what I found out.

FM radio is the most popular when it comes to listening to music, but it’s not so great for an emergency.  The FM transmissions have a very short wavelength.  At most, they can only be received about 75 miles from the site of origin.  This might be ok if you live in a big city, but out in the country or in the mountains you would be out of luck.

AM radio has long been a source of news broadcasts and information.  Unlike the short wavelengths of FM radio, the AM transmissions use long wavelengths that can travel across the world.  AM radio is more prone to static than FM, but it is more ideal if you are needing to find out what is happening in your city, state, or country.  If a natural disaster wipes out your town, such as Hurricane Katrina did, then the local radio stations will not be broadcasting any information.  You would need a radio that would pick up a transmission from a neighboring town or state.

A relatively new band of radio is the satellite radio.  These are becoming more popular in both cars and homes and they are a great source of information.  With satellite radios you can receive real time weather and traffic reports for anywhere in the country.  This can be extremely useful if your town is being evacuated and you need to find a way out that isn’t so crowded.  The Red Cross has even started their own station on XM radio to provide important information to the victims and workers of Hurricane Katrina.  They are able to use it to give information, make announcements, and send messages to a large amount of people at the same time.

Finally, the shortwave radios is an option, especially if you plan on using a bomb shelter.  The shortwave radio can receive transmissions from all over the world.  You could be in Montana and find out what is going on in China.  So if something were to happen to the main broadcasting stations in our country, you could still find out what is happening by listening to chatter from other countries.

Satellite radios tend to be the most expensive and you usually have to pay a monthly service charge to have access to them.  They are worth the money though, especially if you travel a lot because the reception is great anywhere you go.  Most regular radios come with both AM and FM bands, and are the least expensive.  These will work well for most cases.  If you decide to go with a shortwave radio, you can purchase one for under $50.00, and in the mean time you’ll be able to listen to different types of music from all over the world.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 1:40 am and is filed under Emergency Radios. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.