Shortwave radio or a scanner? Digital or Analog?

[miked2345]

I thought I'd post this in this forum, since I saw a thread on Shortwave radios here too.

As far as communications after a SHTF event, what are your thoughts on radios? Other than
AM/FM radios that most of us have, should we also consider a scanner? or shortwave? or both?

I saw a scanner at Radio Shack that said it covered police band, fire, aircraft and HAM. Is this the
way to go? Or would a shortwave radio be better?

And what about Analog vs Digital? The scanner I saw was analog, so I checked on the web and read
that some areas are going to digital police bands, so an analog scanner would be worthless.

Is everything headed for digital? HAM? Fire, Aircraft, etc...? I don't mind spending a few hundred for a good radio, but not if it's going to be a paperweight in a year...

[qrprat77]

Short answer: SW radios and Scanner radios are two different things with two different purposes. So if you want to monitor communications, you will need both.
As far as trunc-tracking digital vs analog, you will find that both come in handy at different time. The trick is finding out who uses what in your area, and then investing in that.

[tech]

Short answer: SW radios and Scanner radios are two different things with two different purposes. So if you want to monitor communications, you will need both.
As far as trunc-tracking digital vs analog, you will find that both come in handy at different time. The trick is finding out who uses what in your area, and then investing in that.

..and a good place to see what is in use in your area is www.radioreference.com