I'm guessing I have somewhere around $3000 invested over the 25 years in
the hobby...let me do some rough math...Kenwood 520S $300, Kenwood
690SAT $1500, Yaesu 857 $600, Astron 35A power supply $250, MFJ 1278
Multimode Controller $300, Cushcraft A50-5S $150...am I there yet?
Countless PL-259, N connectors, LMR400 coax, etc. BUT, I certainly know
anyone can get by with a lot less investment. The key is investment
over time. If I take my $3000 over 25 years, it only averages
$120/year...pretty cheap for a hobby. I fly as another hobby and I can
tell you that it costs more than $120 a year!

Scott
N0EDV

W3JDR wrote:
Listening to the bands, it is sometimes hard to
imagine that there are still hams who operate with a budget of less than
$3000, and still manage to have fun doing so.

---------------------------------------------------

You're joking, right? I think if you took a survey of 25 or so hams here (or
in most other ham venues for that matter), you'd have a very difficult time
finding even a few who have anything close to $3,000 invested in their
hobby. Pile on me if I'm wrong guys, but pile on if I'm right too.

Joe
W3JDR



"Mark VandeWettering" wrote in message
. org...

On 2007-10-29, Scott wrote:

Part of the reason might be that building piece by piece is getting
pretty expensive for what you end up with. For $700 or so, you can buy
a radio that works all the HF bands plus 6, 2 and 432 with all kinds of
features. Try homebrewing that for $700... Seems that most stuff
homebrewed these days is station accessory equipment that just makes
some task around the shack a little more convenient (I'm guilty of this
as well). I do still hombrew all of my own antennas

While I agree that $700 is quite reasonable for an all-band rig, there
actually _are_ people for whom $700 is an unreasonable investment in their
hobby. It isn't as important for them to actually operate on every band
all at once, it's more important that they find a reasonably priced entry
point into the hobby. Listening to the bands, it is sometimes hard to
imagine that there are still hams who operate with a budget of less than
$3000, and still manage to have fun doing so.

But more important is the simple fact is that I learn more by building
than by buying. If ham radio is really more than simply a glorified
Citizen's Band, we are supposed to be educating and training outselves
both to serve the public and to better our own understanding of radio and
the radio arts. I think any attempt to make experimentation of that
sort more accessible to the broad population of hams should be applauded.

Mark KF6KYI


Scott
N0EDV

geek wrote:

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:10:27 +0000, John Tartar wrote:



The deadline for the ARRL homebrew challenge has passed and I hear that
the
ARRL received 4 entries, all NO computer radios. NONE were in the
computer
assisted category. Publication is scheduled for Feb 2008 QST


A Yahoo group was started to discuss developments.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ARRLHBC/

Some of the entrants have posting info about their entries there.


Four entries? This does not bode well for the hobby :-(

IMHO, building at least some of your own stuff should be a prerequisite
for the license.

Cheers,
__
Gregg





--
Scott
http://corbenflyer.tripod.com/
Gotta Fly or Gonna Die
Building RV-4 (Super Slow Build Version)