I consider myself to be a recent ham. While I have had my license for nearly three years now, I simply have not done much with it. I used the HandiHam audio lecture series to study for both my tech and general license. I passed both exams the first time out. I mainly focus on the 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands. Why you may ask? Simple answer is money. LOL I was gifted a brand new BTech UV5X3 shortly after I got my license. It is the only handheld I have owned or used. My base station radio in an older used Kenwood TM271A 2 meter mobile. It is hooked up to a Radio Shack power supply. My outside antenna is the Ed Fong DBJ1 antenna. I am far less interested in the newest and latest ham gear. Rather, I am more interested in the how and why of how it all works. I prefer simple/basic over bleeding edge. Welcome to everyone and I hope we all have fun.

KN4CHK

It sounds to me like you are doing what you can afford.   I can barely afford what I have.   It's all VHF and UHF band radios.   Some of it is because of my budget, some of it is because I prefer 6m and shorter over HF.  As a kid, I had a Uniden scanner and a Grundig HF radio.   I rarely used the HF radio and spend most of my time with the scanner.   After doing HF a few times, I prefer VHF and UHF over HF.   It's just as well since most HF gear is beyond my price range.   Do what you can and what you can afford.

73 to you

KI7EZU

Yes, you are right. I live on a fixed income and simply can not afford HF. I live on a farm with my parents. They are up in age and just can not keep up with the work load. Space is not an issue for a wire HF antenna. My issue is with the transceiver. $750 and up? I can not do it. Yes, you can go used but I am concerned with reliability. What I mean is that if something breaks such as a $2 diode or resistor, I can not see it to fix it. I hope this is not coming off as doom and gloom. LOL I just want to explain my situation. Personally, I have $100 or less invested in my entire ham setup. The rest of it were gifts or free hand me downs. I really would like to experience the difference between a Baofeng and a Kenwood or Icom. I want to understand why a radio from the big three can cost 3x a Chinese radio.

You're not alone in the affordability issue..I have an Icom T7h HT that does well on my local repeater and is used mostly for Sunday Night Net and Skywarn,  and an older Yaesu 2 meter/70 cm. mobile which is going in the car when we quit getting snow up here in the frozen north..The Yaesu is interesting because it uses two antennas..one for each frequency, and monitors both at the same time. Both were given to me.  I do have an RTS-SDR but can't utilize decent antennas since I rent. My solution at this point is going to be CW.  A small CW transceiver with a field antenna and a decent key might be financially in my reach..and re-learning code is kind of fun. (I used to get 15 wpm back in boy scouts..but you forget a lot in 56 years. )The interesting thing about amateur radio to me is that there is something out there to interest just about anyone that wants to be interested..you can get in to antennas..to packet radio..to echolink..to very very faint station contacts..to satellites (the SDR works well for that) to ragchewing..to joining a local club and getting involved in whatever they are doing. It certainly is keeping me interested..I'm 71 and took the Technician in November because 2 meters is used for Skywarn here..then the General last week..and am planning on the Extra this summer..either before or after the new test comes out at the end of June.  I guess my attitude is do what you can with what you've got..and enjoy it as much as possible.

Paul, I just want to second the advice about joining a local ham club. Since you're on a farm, maybe there isn't one close to you, but you'd be surprised what the right group of hams will do for you ... from helping with installs to finding cheap or free surplus equipment that's checked out and ready for use. FWIW, the Correspondence Secretary (an elected officer) in our VHF club is blind. He is successful in VHF contests with 6m through 9cm bands, which would be impossible without help from the club members. Good luck Paul; hope you can find a way to get on HF.

-- Pete K0BAK

My first suggestion, if you are comfortable with computers, would be to try Remotehams. It is a way of using your General Class privileges (or Tech CW and 10 meters) with somebody else's radio over the Internet. For people who can't have a home HF station, it's a godsend. You may need to join one or more of the clubs that have their radios available. It's exactly like sitting in front of a radio. In fact, you can buy a faceplate from Elecraft that will let you operate remote KX3s like you are there. 

Also, Handihams has two HF stations that members can use remotely. 

If you just want to listen, there are online receivers, too. https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Live_Tunable_Receivers 
--
Bill, K0RGR

Hi guys, one thing to keep in mind is that Hans Summers that owns QRP Labs is in the process of developing a kit radio called the QSX.  The QSX will be a 10w all band all mode radio.  The QSX has been in the works for a few years now but I suspect that it's not too far from completion.  I think part of Hans goal is to allow for a very affordable HF radio for about $150.  Granted it's 10w but as an avid QRP operator you'd be amazed at how well you can do with 10w.

I suspect that there will be a few of us that might possibly be willing to build one of these for someone that is blind (at their expense) once the kit is released.  Here is a link to the QSX project.

https://www.qrp-labs.com/qsx.html 

Curt M.

I love the $150 idea. I realize that it is not wise for an HF newbie to dive into QRP but the idea is great. Thank you all for the advice and welcome.