If you haven't already found people that you would want to communicate with in a crisis, and formed some kind of at least informal network of those folks before you need to use this technology for SHTF communications, it won't help.
Is that really any different from today? Logic, common sense, and experience are the only way to determine if anything you see on the net today, or hear from someone else, even (or maybe especially) someone in a nominal position of authority. I pretty much disregard at least 60% of what purported "information" I see, and I take the rest with a very large grain of salt.
If the S truly HTF, one of my major concerns would be of a government agency, or virtually the entire government, gone rogue (even more so than current events portray :-) In that event, I think I'd be far more concerned with what could happen if one of those rogue elements could easily eavesdrop on my plans and activities, than with somebody citing me for infraction of an FCC regulation.