Depends what you want to do; just get "into" the hobby, or as a direct means of prepping.
Most people start with VHF kit; typically a hand-held. You can get them new for about £100, but a good solution would be to go to a radio fair (see RSGB website for a listing) and pick up an ex-police or utility company one that's been converted to amateur frequencies - less than £20. HOWEVER, in my experience, many people who go the VHF route end up disappointed. The volume of local traffic just isn't very high on VHF these days, although it depends where in the country you are. A lot of amateurs that use VHF kit have a mobile setup in their car, which can be a good option (even if you just go and sit in it on your drive!). A mag-mount antenna on the roof is cheap and will give you fantastically better reach than the little "rubber duck" aerial you get on a hand-held.
IMO, it will be more rewarding to go straight for HF kit, but this does tend to be more expensive. My IC730 100w dates from the 80's and cost me about £250 a few years ago, but it is in excellent condition. Amateur Radio kit keeps its value very well, and tends to be well looked after. If you buy from a dealer, you'll get a 3-6 month warranty, and I'd recommend this rather than fleabay.
Have a look at
www.hamradio.co.uk. It's the website of Martin Lynch and Sons, my local dealer. If you're not familiar with the equipment, it won't make an awful lot of sense. This is where the local club is useful to point you in the right direction.
To cut a long story short, if you're going HF, you need the following:
-Transceiver (the pricey bit)
- Power source (this could be a mains power supply or batteries)
- Antenna (can be bought, but normally home-made)
- Antenna tuner (may or may not be necessary, depending on antenna. Some modern transceivers have them built in. Mine doesn't)
Antennas:
The simplest form of antenna is a "long wire" - which is exactly what it says. You take a length of pretty much any old wire, hang one end of it as high as you can, and connect the other end to your radio. This is known as an "unbalanced" antenna and needs a tuner to work with it.
Without going over the top on technical detail, any antenna has a natural resonant frequency. For best results, this frequency needs to match the frequency on which you are transmitting, so the power being sent to it by the radio is then propagated away into the atmosphere. If the antenna is not matched to the frequency your transmitting on, it won't resonate and there will be nowhere for the power to go. So it tries to go back into the radio, which can cause damage (plus nobody will hear you!). The antenna tuner modifies the characteristics of the antenna so this problem doesn't occur.
The other type of antenna is a balanced antenna. A simple example is a dipole; basically two lengths of wire connected by a feeder cable, in a sort of T formation. The lengths of the dipole are carefully trimmed to match the frequency you are transmitting on, meaning you don't need a tuner.
I decided to get a tuner, because setting up a simple long-wire antenna was cheaper and easier than organising something more sophisticated. So, in my case:
Transceiver and Power Supply (2nd hand) - £250.00
Tuner (new) - £75.00
Wire, etc - few quid.
Hope this helps, and not too rambly!
p.s some transceivers go for £5 - £6,000. You DO NOT need one of these! They are for the real head-bangers for whom AR is their life.
