From JAK "Bark tea while flying a kite...." Might as well enjoy yourself!

About your issued radios...I'm the FEMA/RACES radio officer for my town and since our region just changed to a 400mhz trunk system, the handheld radios carried by fire and police are worthless, unless the repeaters are within range and working. So, make sure your issued radios are NOT digital and/or trunking or they will be paperweights. Analog is what you want, preferably something on the aircraft bands and med channels. Funny how our military prefers cheap Motorola Talkbacks to the issued stuff. They simply work and AA batts are everywhere.

I carry a do-everything ham radio but you'll need a license for that.