My wife and I live on the outskirts of Nashville where electrical service can be unreliable. We've had several multi-day outages since we moved here 25 years ago, including 7 1/2 days after an ice storm in January.
We are bulking up our provisions for emergencies. This includes buying a new radio to use in power outages. A distinguishing feature of various options is the ability to receive shortwave.
We imagine that during the power outages, shortwave operators were probably busy and sharing a lot of useful information. Short of buying a radio, however, we don't know.
Can anyone help us understand what to expect in a weather or other emergency when power's out and communication is limited? Will shortwave be a good info source? Should we upgrade for this feature?
Speaking more broadly and without any application to myself, I know that shortwave operators have provided a really important service for decades, if not a century already. Thank you.