When I hear disaster communications, I think ham and family/FRS radio. I'd consider getting a ham radio license, the tech license is really easy. Just 35 mult

When I hear disaster communications, I think ham and family/FRS radio. I'd consider getting a ham radio license, the tech license is really easy. Just 35 multiple choice, and you just have to get 26 questions right. The tests aren't tricky, pretty straight forward, and often common sense will get you fair number of questions right. Disaster communications and preparations are pretty common among the ham radio community. In central California there's a regular net that include fire, hospitals, police, universities, etc. It's relatively common for ham radio repeaters to have solar+battery power to survive most disaster scenarios, you can always fall back to direct connecting if need be. To really be prepared you have to practice, so that means participating in nets, setting up your radio, and efficiently communicating. The bay area has several nets each week, with different topics/goals. Additionally hams often help with races, large events, especially if the event is outside of cell range. In fact BLM allowed races to take place on BLM land, only if hams were involved to help coordinate with emergency services. I helped with the a double century bike race and my club also helped out with some horse races. Working with emergency services, often more than one, is good practice for a disaster. SOTA (summits on the air) is also great practice for going into a disaster zone and helping with communications. You carry your radio, power, and antenna and get points for effectively communicating. Sure a CB can be part of disaster communications, but it would be my first choice. Might want to pick up a couple 4 packs of the family radios and distribute them to any friends/family in your neighborhood. That way as a ham you can communicate/coordinate over longer distances and then coordinate with the neighbors, even if the power is out. If there's a disaster, your fellow hams can be quite a resource, well they are a great resource even without disasters. In central California with a 5/8th wave 2M antenna on my roof could reach repeaters just outside the bay area, all the way up to near Shasta, and nearly to LA. Granted California central valley is quite flat, and the repeaters typically have pretty good elevation around the rim. If you want to speak to people further away without repeaters, I'd consider upgrading to the general license, it's only somewhat more technical and allows you to use quite a bit more of the HF frequencies that can get you across the country, or even across the world depending on your radio, antenna, and protocols. So the more radios the better, but I'd at least look at FRS/Family and Ham if you are interested in disaster communications.