I would seriously keep in mind that most communications in a WWIII/SHTF scenario would be in the <25MHz bandwidth (1KHZ - 20KHz most likely)which is commonly outside of the bandwidth of most scanners.

Most police frequencies are now digitally encrypted and cannot be listened to. Fire and ambulance services are either digital or soon to be, so many of which cannot be listened to either.

Aircraft and Marine are all open frequencies, but most long range marine is in the bandwidth mentioned above and will require an appropriate receiver.

It might also pay to check out receiving weather satellite data as the satellites will(hopefully) be up and active in a WWIII scenario.

Also checkout collecting packet data via the scanner (POCSAG is a pretty good program from memory) for receiving pager messages. Most hospitals use pagers and the info is broadcast wholesale in an unencrypted form. Some ambulance, fire & engineering services also use pagers and can be a good source of info if the media is down (power out).

To Add...

If money isn't a concern, you might want to consider getting your hands on an amateur radio(HAM) and a license).

Failing that I would recommend supplementing the scanner with a short-wave radio.

BTW the Uniden's also have specialist batteries (My BC3000XLT is around $50 for a generic replacement.) and will cost a pretty penny.

Sorry....just saw the newer models use standard batteries.

Nope this thread must be deleted because in some parts of the world it is illegal to use scanners and it's off topic, well because i say so.

"Discussion of illegal activities are not permitted on ATS. "

Little green men is OK but energy, medicine, bartering, fighting has nothing to do with survival so scanners for use when SHTF is just being silly unless we have double standards on ATS and posting to complain in Board and questions about posts being delete is also the wrong place and also gets deleted so I guess i will do it all over the place until my concerns have been addressed by Mr "intrepid"

I'm sure it is illegal to use scanners in some part of the world but I doubt that it's illegal to talk about using them..
Besides, how is having a scanner "off topic" when it could be used to receive potentially life saving information in a war situation? Especially in these modern times when an enemy would likely preemptively cripple the receiving end's modern communication systems i.e satellites, cell towers

P.S. are you actually being serious?

Alot of this will depend on your location of coarse, but I have had a scanner for years and can hear everything in the DFW area you would ever want to hear or could hear. For some reason 99% of the DFW and surrounding areas are NOT encrypted, I believe this holds true for most of the US. They have almost all converted to digital, except for Dallas proper, all suburbs are on digital now and only 1 city in the entire DFW metroplex is encrypted, McKinney Tx. The FBI and DHS is encrypted for the most part, you can hear some federal stuff like some DEA field agents but you guys have to understand, when they have to cooperate with local police and fire, they have to use the open channels so you will get that info. When used you can hear SWAT as well, no idea why they are not encrypted, but in Dallas they are not.

I listen to all local police and fire, DPS, I listen to the local ARES HAM frequencies for weather when it gets bad, they are the guys that actually chase the storms and report directly to the weather guys(NOAA). Im sure if there was an emergency these guys would be involved on the backup side of things. I programed the local power company as well for the bad weather, power goes out at home, I know where the problem is and how long they think its going to take to fix, I know the moment its about to get turned back on. With a good scanner you can hear just about anything that transmits, CB, HAM, FRS, GMRS, Marine, aircraft. You would be amazed what you can hear sometimes. Go to RadioReference and they maintain the frequencies for pretty much the entire US, and I mean pretty much everything is there to program into your scanner.

A scanner is a wonderful tool to add to your "stuff". I would for sure get a DIgital unit, any of those you named would work fine, also might want to include the Radio Shack units as well, they are normally the cheapest cost when they go on sale you can get one for $250, most the others if new will run you $400ish