M0PWX
Hi Terry
welcome to the forum
so you say mobile radio? that can cover a multitude of options
a VHF/UHF radio in a car with an antenna fixed on the car
a handheld radio / walkie talkie working local repeaters?
HF radio for doing parks on the air? ( https://pota.app/ )
satellite operation using a walkie talkie and an arrow antenna?
than you have the option of voice, morse code and digital modes
as for budget it depends which area you want to get into
one cheap option to start listening is an RTL-SDR.com dongle (make sure you get a genuine one, the chinese fakes are rubbish and not much cheaper) https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/ with a couple of basic wire antennas and free software on an old laptop / pc you can listen from old long wave station, all the way up HF, VHF, UHF to satellites
a baofeng basic VHF / UHF handheld is at most £30-£40, and a fixed antenna for a car should easily come in under £100
or to add satellite ops baofeng and a basic arrow antenna you are up to £150-£200
HF for field operation / POTA (take a car to a carpark etc setup a mag mount antenna or portable HF antenna) something like a Xiegu G90 (about £400) and a HF portable or magmount antenna (£100-£150)
other options are if you are up to building a radio from a kit, there is the QMX HF digital mode radio from QRP-Labs.com for about £100-£150 depending on options
all of the above costs are for new kit, beware of ebay, unless you can collect and see the kit working before you buy
if you can borrow a copy of radcom from a ham how belongs to the RSGB, or find copy of practical wireless in a large wh smiths you will see the adverts for Moonrakeronline, martin lynch & sons, walters and stanton, sinotel, nevada radio who are the main ham radio stores, all are happy to chat and help you with kit selection as virtually all the staff are experiences hams, and all the stores tend to have youtube channels showing kit and how it performs
any questions, just ask, as i know the above is a lot of information and options,
if you are signed on to the free essex ham foundation license course, then Pete (M0PSX) used to do a weekly live chat for the group which is very helpful, and happy to answer some questions at the end
73
Peter M0PWX
(not Pete M0PSX who runs this site)
