Ham radio is a non-commercial use of designated radio frequencies by licensed individuals for personal, educational, or emergency communication. Ham operators can build their own equipment, talk to people around the world, and provide critical communications during disasters when other systems fail.
In emergencies like natural disasters, radio is often the most reliable form of communication. Emergency radios can receive broadcasts from agencies like NOAA (in the US) that provide weather alerts, evacuation notices, and critical updates. Many emergency radios are hand-cranked or solar-powered to function without electricity.
A weather radio is designed to receive broadcasts from government weather services like the National Weather Service (NWS). It typically features SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) technology, which allows it to alert users in specific geographic areas when warnings are issued.
