Cheap Hams?

[VE7NOT]

I rarely spend large amounts on radio stuff. Sure give me a million dollars after the land I buy there would be an antenna farm, towers and such and few amps.

But simply lets go over my station.

D-104 - Given to me by a cber..wired for kenwood tranceivers.



External speakers - I'm hard of hearing and I find external speakers helpful. They were all given to me by guys that hand junky stereos.
Made some good 40m contaCTS WITH IT.
Tuner - Homebuilt. Traded it with a cber... turned out to be better then the MFJ ones.

Dipole antenna.. 16 gauge speaker wire? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Rain gutters and rails.. I didn't pay for them http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

Ts 440 and ts-680 The 680 I spent 600 canadian for. My first hf rig. The 440 which i prefer is not really mine but my elmer's. He's not active so...

2m ts-242. Yes I payed RS the money for this... 8-9 years ago http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

Pro2032 scanner.. I got this in 95 I think. It was a gift from my parents. Free. Still works.

My radio computer was also free. A piece of junk. It runs all the ham programs.

CW key-- wired to 440. My elmer's.. free

Vibro-plex bug..free.. wired to this computer for cw communicator.

Power supplies. The 12 amp pyramid I got again years and years ago for I think 70 dollars but it runs my 2m rig simple

The 20 amp power supllies fo the hf rigs came with the radios.

Mobile:

Note my htx-212 I got for 80 doallar recently. Never turn it on almost

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

BC scanner. I payed the full price for a simple mobile a scanner last summer. More then payed for itself and I have heard E-skip on the low bands with it.

We won't name my cb radios (no one here cares) but most were second hand. Same for the solocon antennas. I worked a few on ehre through them

I have lots of extra stuff. Antenna wise I have alot. I have a 6BTV vertical i use any chance I get to go to a mt. top listening and working hf. made some good contacts with it. Thanks to a fellow ham on qrz who sold it to me. I also used it at the last place.

The software is all free.

Have i left anything out? Oh yes the thousands of pices of coax/wire./adaptors and stuff like that. Came from many places.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif


Too cheap? Nope. I have worked the other end of the world a few times. New hams need not fear $$. It can be simple.

My opinoin. (BTW I have never run over 250w)

[W4HAY]

Sweat equity & creativity go a long way toward successful hamming!

[N9FQ]

This is interesting to me and kind a good post.

Seems ham radio used to be a LOT more about making the most with what you had at hand. Seemed a lot more fun that way. I guess maybe that contributes to the image of the dumpster diving ham to a degree but that certainly seems more sporting than just calling AES and ordering your new appliance and commercially made antenna.

[KA4DPO]

I don't recall ever dumpster diving but I did used to scrounge old television sets or radios that people threw out. Back in the sixtys TVs were a great source of radio parts. Too bad there aren't many useable parts in a television set anymore. I do agree though that there was a certain satisfaction that came with making do. I remember when building your own stuff out of junk parts was a badge of honor.