Well -- you can buy a used mobile 2m rig for $40.
You can buy a used HT for $30

For HF -- You can buy a Swan 350, Yaseu 101, Kenwood TS-520 for $250
And these have their own 117V power supplies.
And you can't tell a TS-520 from a TS-870 on the air, in fact the older
TS-520 may sound better.
And they were 200 to 300 Watts outputs not today's 100 watters

Build your own antenna for $10

These are real prices I have seen regularly.
Whe
Swap Meets
Local Radio Store Bulletin Boards
Local 2M Swap Nets
Swap Cars on 40M
Local Club Classified.

E-Bay is not for the faint of heart -- lots of collectors or bargain hunters
there who buy low and resell high to make a profit.
The latter may not even be Hams -- just guys/gals making a buck by astute
buying and selling. I know several people who do this and just to remind
you -- its called free enterprise -- we don't usually fix prices in this
country. Supply and demand -- tis true from day one.

So look at the above non auction places and be on HF/VHF for $300

Lots of folks I know have done so.

And if you can fix HF radios -- buy a DOA one for $75 and replace tubes,
caps and faulty components.

As far as
"I guess what I'm saying, what I should
have said... If someone has five HF transceivers, a half dozen 2 meter
rigs, etc... How much better is it to have more?


Hey it is their money and Hams have a funny saying "One can never have too
many radios". Crazy maybe -- but true.

There is enough old gear out there to go around -- some of it you have to
give away.


--
73 From AC
-------------------
"Daniel J. Morlan" wrote in message
om...
I often wonder if the hams who can't have enough HF transmitters or
transcievers often outbid the newer hams looking for a working HF rig
who are quite strapped for cash. The hobby is an expensive one, to be
sure, but I wonder if the zealous "five transcievers is better than
one" crowd, which do exist, much like the pipesmokers who have a
rotation of well over twenty or thirty, often hundreds of pipes...

Something to POSSIBLY consider when a newbie is bidding on something
on eBay...

Mind you, it's not ANYONE'S responsibility that a poor ham get their
equipment. They should earn the bucks for it, save up, and buy the
thing, OR they should build their own. I just wanted to float the
idea for consideration. I don't subscribe to this idea, really, as
even a thinking point, but it's there in the back of my mind.

The more I think about it, the less of a deal I think it is, but I did
want to float it out there. This is not an admonition, just a passing
thought is all.

73, KG6TKA

Dan