Radio on a budget

 The following was a post I prepared for one of my Facebook groups, but it became longer than I intended, so I am posing it here on my ham radio blog and will link to the Facebook group.

Kindly permit me a minute to share a few items with you. Amateur Radio on a budget has different meanings to every ham radio operator. When you live on an island like me,  V4, you have to use what is made available by the hardware suppliers. I cannot run across town to get aluminum tubing to build an antenna, or to buy coax cable, nor antenna wire. These items are just not available in any store.  I have to use and recycle whatever I have. If I can get pass the amateur radio coax cable discussion I may be able to find a piece of TV coax cable that I can use on my QRP radio. Many local ham radio operators frown on this but it work for me.

The largest investment one makes in ham radio is determined by the seriousness taken in the hobby. It is always best to get the most affordable brand name radio equipment. Why? Because as a DX station at some point I will need to make DX contacts on the far side on the world. All radios or great, but some are just made better. Here I have to buy what I can afford, in other countries, one can lay away and be financed as necessary. That does not work for us overseas. The same apply to good antenna systems. The quality of our ham radio depends on the budget, and how far we can stretch it. 

There are also constraints, regulations, restrictions and more which impact our ham radio and ultimately our budget.  If I can afford an Icom-7851 radio, but I cannot install a 55-foot tower, with a HyGain TH-11 beam antenna, I do not think that it is wise to entertain this level of investment in the hobby. The best pre-owned radio might be the best alternative. Of course others would make the investment irrespectively, and nothing is wrong with that. Actually, I would still make the investment. After all, it is what I love, and it is my money.

There are some ham radio operators who get fantastic results from their budget equipment and radio stations. It is about being serious about what we do and how we do it. Most local DX stations, from my observations, are on a budget. But that does not stop us from getting the best antenna installation possible. Sometimes it is all about the antenna, ensuring that it is in the best possible location and tuned up perfectly. No serious ham radio station should be without a reputable antenna analyzer. When the covid19 struck in 2020 and we were all at home and in place, I had just received my www.RigExperts.com  analyzer a week or two before, so I built and experimented with various antennas over the next few months. That kept me so busy that I did not have time to study covid19. 

As a DX station I have to place all the power available into the antenna system, and to receive every microvolt of signal reaching the antenna terminals of the receiver. It is essential that we do whatever is necessary to get our budget station performing like a big gun. Some budget radios allow this to happen, some do not. Sometimes it is helpful to check the sources to discover which older budget radios are better for what we need. In time to come I suspect that the latest SDR radio prices may be rivaling those of old and obsolete radios. Many hams still prefer the older technology instead of the more recent SDR technology.  Every ham has to weigh this carefully and make the best decision as it will affect us for the next ten [10] years or more.

Nothing is wrong with being a ham radio operator on a budget if it is done properly, in order and not hit and miss, with a don't care attitude. Ham radio is a serious business and we should always treat it as such. Keep pushing ham radio to another level. Join the Contest University if possible, and take your ham radio to another level. Long live our ham radio.

https://www.contestuniversity.com/

 By the way, this has nothing to do with operating ham radio or operating a ham radio station on a budget, but it affects amateur radio, in more countries than we can imagine. This is just what we face in V4. In some countries ham radio is banned.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2859016311009957