View source for Do I need to spend Thousands of Dollars to be a Ham Operator?

No!

(Your cheeky author was tempted to leave the page that way and move on :)

Ham radio is a wide-ranging hobby which can consume just about any amount of resources you throw at it. However, it does not need to cost much at all. That's up to you. If economy is important, here are a few tips to keeping costs low:

* Start with an inexpensive HT, but upgrade it (see [[Is a Walkie-Talkie ("HT") enough?]])
* [[Build an Antenna | Learn to build stuff!]] We typically call it "homebrewing." A very natural place to start learning homebrewing is with antennas. A quick session with your favorite search engine will reveal a lot of very simple and inexpensive DIY antenna projects. Your author made a very effective 2M dipole with a small strip of wood, a few feet of copper house wiring, some coaxial cable, and some electrical tape. 
* Buy used gear. An experienced "[[New Ham Operator FAQ and Terminology#Elmer|elmer]]" can often help you evaluate that Craigslist or eBay find to see if it is likely to be a good buy. There are multiple "Ham Fests" in the area that include swap meets where you can browse and buy used radio equipment.