dead of night wrote:
Hi. I'm reading Daphne Du Maurier's short story "The Birds" right now.
In this story, a family is inside their boarded up house, attacked by
thousands of birds. They tune to their radio and learn that farther
away,in the cities, the population is under attack by hordes of large
birds. These attacks seem to be organized, military, and reasoning.
I'm interested in the radio as a tool of survival in an emergency:
weather, terror, war, epidemic, or alien. What would be some of the
best radios to own as a source of news information and survival in a
time of severe crisis and emergency?

During a real crisis (see Art Bell for aliens, birds, famine and other
unlikely happenings) the ham bands will provide you with very little
useful information when an emergency occurs. You need to be in touch
with the real emergency responders, or at least know what their
instructions are. The chances are that they will communicate by local
radio station, as was done during Katrina. At least one New Orleans
station broadcast local emergency information nonstop.

So get a hand crank Grundig radio that covers AM and FM.