It seems there are a lot of folks out there wanting
to know what rig is the best. Some may say Icom,
Kenwood or Yaesu, the top brands. Others may say
Alinco, Heathkit, Hallicrafters for the older, no longer in production
brands.

I've read postings where folks say "Amateur Radio is
too expensive and for us who are on a budget
the radio's are out of reach for us".

I say, and this is my opinion only, that's not totally
true. For the person on a budget, eBay, and other
outlets, there are hundreds of older equipment that
a new person can pick up for little investment.

Amateur radio should not be "Who has the best toys",
although to some that may be a true statement. The
object is to enjoy the hobby not break one financially.
I surf eBay as well as swap forums a lot and from what I
see there are thousands of rigs that would give folks a
tremendous amount of enjoyment in the amateur radio
hobby.

Honestly, for me that is, I don't care that much for
the new rigs of today. I'm sure they do an excellent
job of filtering out adjacent interference using the
newer technology "DSP etc. Having said that the
price of the rigs is too high for a new comer who
is on a budget. However, that doesn't eliminate
the other possibilities of older gear such as Drake,
Hallicrafters, Collins (well they're a bit pricey too
but thrown in for category reasons only). A few that
I believe are excellent rigs are the Drake TR-3,
TR-4, TR-4C and TR-4CW. They offer simplicity,
basic features such as USB, LSB, CW and AM.
They also provide the operator with up to 300 watts
input which is more than enough to start off with.
For the new comer who want all solid state there's
the Drake TR-5 and TR-7 series of transceivers.
These rigs provide basic features plus a few bells
and whistles not offered on the TR3/4 series rigs.
For the separate transmitter and receiver enthusiasts
there's the Drake T4X, R4, T4-XB, R4B, T4-XC
and the R4C.

Another is the Yaesu FT-757GX or GX II solid
state transceiver. Here again, these rig(s) offers the
operator USB, LSB, CW, FM and AM modes
built in, nothing extra to buy other than the power
supply which can be any 13.5 VDC at 20amp
continuous output. This small rig offers many
features such as 1.5 to 30mhz continuous receive,
push button up and down between bands and a built
in mic processor and 100 watts output in all modes
except "AM", 25 watts. When used with the
Yaesu FD-700 or 757 HD power supplies, key down
times are limited to 30 minutes, although I wouldn't
keydown for that amount of time.

Other used rigs are the Heathkit SB series and HW-101,
all with basic features to get the new ham on the air.

Two more are the Swan 350 and 500 transceivers.
Along with the Swan is the National NCX-5. All
of these rigs have the basic features with sufficient
power to give hours of operating enjoyment.

This is just a small amount of the rigs available for the
new comer and budget minded hams that are
there to do one thing, "Communicate on the Ham
Bands". Their purchase cost is low and provide a
means for the new comer and budget minded ham
to get on the air at a fraction of the cost.

I recall when I started out over 35 years ago. My
first transmitter was a Knightkit T-60, BC-312N
receiver and 3 crystals. It was great fun and if I
still had that combo I would use it.

In closing, I understand there are folks who would
love to have the newest rig on the market, the one
with the most bells and whistles. To that I say
go for it. Having said that, for the folks who
want to get on the air but think it's not possible
because of the high dollar figure for today's rigs
I say, look around there's more to amateur radio
than owning a $2,500 radio. I believe that the
hobby should be fun and whether the rigs new or
used, don't get discouraged at the high cost of radios
today.

73's

Michael
DA1TNJ / WB8TNJ