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I would appreciate any of you Ham’s coming forward on listing or commenting on justifications for the expense and effort for a guy to get into Ham radio. My initial thoughts are to purchase a base for my home, and portable for my boat (I do have marine radios) and vehicles.

I listed my base station above, much of which I got on the cheap or free. For example, my Mosley CL-33 beam was free. That's a $600 antenna that I received from another Ham who was upgrading to a different antenna. My tower was #200. The radio equipment cost me about $1,000 in total (bought at local Hamfests, silent keys, etc..

My mobile is a Kenwood Dual-Bander 2m/440 rig which cost me #250 at a hamfest earlier this year, and a Diamond dual-band antenna which I got for free from another Ham. (Ham's tend to give away lots of stuff, most of it very useful.)

But the best reason to get into it in my opinion: You meet an awful lot of very nice, very helpful people, most of which are more than happy to help you get started through either very cheap equipment, "loaners" or sometimes free stuff.

When my tower went up, I had 10 people over here helping out, doing everything from digging the 5x5x4 foot hole the base required, hepling pour the cement base, raising the tower and putting the antenna's up on top. All for the cost of free brats, burgers, hot dogs, cold beer and camaraderie.

I had always wanted to get into Ham radio from a young age (I'm 46 now) and finally did back in 2008. I've met more really good friends in the last year and a half than I think I have my entire lifetime. I think that says something about the amateur radio community.

Oh, and by the way one of my Son's (the youngest, he's 10) is studying to get his Tech license. He sits and listens as his dad talks to people around the world and wants to get into it himself. It's a really fun hobby that dad's can pass onto their kids.

My youngest seems to really enjoy hearing the conversations from around the world and helping dad out with my different projects. He helped me tune an antenna that we're taking up to our summer place next weekend. It took 3 hours to tune an old 2m Cushcraft Ringo Ranger including lots of measuring, math, etc.. all of which he really enjoys. It was a fun three hours for us, and once we got the antenna tuned in he had a great sense of accomplishment. (Yes, it took 3 hours because I let him do it, but it was so well worth it.)