OBSERVATIONS FROM SCOTLAND 28 May 2008 GM1SXX
The sheer cost of getting started in amateur radio... or not as the case may be.
As a relatively new member of the RSGB, I've read more than a few comments about the cost of getting on the air once you've earned your ticket. The most recent letter to come to my attention came from Daibhidh GM4ELV in the April edition of RADCOM where he suggested that an amateur radio station and associated aerials might cost many thousands of pounds.
As a pensioner, he felt that the hobby was was not too affordable (my words). Looking at the issue data on that edition of RADCOM (April) I *have* to wonder if GM4ELV's letter was intended as an April fool joke.
Sure, if he absolutely MUST have the most expensive transceiver you can find and a triband Yagi, his claim might have some substance. I note that in the current (May) issue, several readers have added their thoughts on the subject and the solutions offered are worthy of consideration.
Charles, G0SKA suggests that one can get on the air for under £200 by using second-user equipment and that amateur radio has never been cheaper. (I agree.)
Daniel Schlieper M0ERA suggests building a transceiver from a kit and goes on to suggest a few candidates. (While this might not be suitable for everyone, it would be a great opportunity to learn by doing and there are quite a few transceiver kits available ranging from simple mono-band rigs to fully featured multi-band multimode radios.
Charlie, M0WYM suggests that one can get on the air for £450 or less and makes the perfectly reasonable point that aerials such as the humble but effective dipole, are easily built for a just few pounds. (Yet again, I agree completely. Building your own aerials is not only educational, it's fun. What's more, they will frequently outperform expensive 'small-plot' aerials, and as Charlie points out, a set of multi-band dipoles can be built cheaply and easily.)
Unlike myself, not everyone is into construction, so kits are not for everyone, BUT if you can solder competently, I'd urge you to try building a transceiver (even a mono-band one). The low cost of some of these, notably the MKARS80 and BITX20A should put them easily within reach of even pensioners such as GM4ELV. If you like 80M, the MKARS80 delivers 10W PEP on CW/SSB and is quite easy to build and test. For 20M, I'd recommend the BITX20A from Doug Hendricks in the US. In the UK, Tim Walford does a nice range of kits for the radio amateur. The Midney (receiver) and Kingsdon (transmitter) can be bought as a kit for about £80 while the MKARS80 and BITX20A cost even less.
For those who want a ready-made solution, EBay and other auction sites as well as radio club buy&sell are good places to pick up a decent radio. I've only ever bought two new radios in my life.... an FT290 with Mutek front end (which I still use) and an FT817ND. I have several other radios including ones built from kits (Midney/Kingsdon, MKARS80 and BITX20A), plus an ICOM IC-730 (under £200 from EBay) and my much loved RACAL equipment, bought from a variety of sources. I also have a second FT290 (for transverter driving) and a FT790R. Were I to add the cost of *ALL* this equipment together, it still wouldn't even come remotely close to the sort of costs that GM4ELV mentioned in his April letter to RADCOM!
Hopefully, GM4ELV's letter to RADCOM was intended as an April Fool. I'd like to hope so.
References.
73 Al.
GM1SXX