Just so you will know, since you do not have a ham license and if the S does HTF one day, there will be hams (including me) that will not risk losing their license by communicating with an unlicensed individual. On our local repeaters, we periodically have unlicensed preppers show up asking for "radio checks" to which they get no response from licensed hams. Instead, those individuals are quietly tracked with sophisticated equipment by FCC monitoring personnel (I know of one) for possible prosecution. The fines can be as high as $10,000 and/or 10 years in jail. So if you really want to make sure that somebody is going to talk to you and to maximize your investment like
@Cognomen eluded to, you really should get your Technician's license in the Amateur Radio Service. It really does not take that much studying to pass the 25 question test.