by Thomas (K4SWL)

When I meet a newly minted amateur radio operator, I often start by telling them, “You couldn’t be entering our community at a better time!”

And I really mean that.

We have incredible support communities, both in person and online. Amateur radio has become far more accessible than it once was. And the cost of getting on the air has dropped dramatically.

That last part is easy to overlook if you’re new to this. Those of us who’ve been around for a few decades have a little more perspective.

I became an amateur radio operator in 1997. Some of you reading this have been hams for twice as long—or more—and you know exactly what I mean.

The gear available today is, in many respects, astonishingly affordable.

The Incredible Value of Modern Amateur Radio

Especially in the QRP world, we are living in something of a golden age.

Today, it’s entirely possible to put together a very capable field station—radio, battery, antenna, and accessories—for well under $300. Build your own antenna, and you can make that figure smaller still.

Batteries alone are a good example of how much things have changed. They’re smaller, lighter, more energy-dense, less expensive, and incredibly ubiquitous. When I started, batteries were heavier, more expensive for what you got, and considerably less convenient.

Then there’s the sheer number of inexpensive QRP transceivers available. QRP Labs is the perfect example: the QMX five-band, 5-watt multimode kit is just over $100, and it gives you CW, SSB, and digital modes in a remarkably compact package.

That is an incredible amount of radio for the money.

And when you look at everything else coming out of the QRP community—the various QRP Labs designs, MountainTopper radios, the CFT-1, the microSDX radios, and so many others—the choices are almost overwhelming.

And it isn’t just QRP.

If you want to operate QRO (20–100 watts), you can build a capable portable station around something like the Xiegu G90 or a used Yaesu FT-891 for a fraction of what a comparable station would have cost decades ago.

Some of these rigs aren’t going to have the refinement or audio quality of a contest-grade transceiver, of course. But they don’t have to. They work brilliantly. They get you on the air.

And that’s the important part.

What $700 Meant to Me in 1997

I think about this a lot, because I remember very clearly what it was like to get my first amateur radio equipment.

In 1997, I had just finished my undergraduate degree. There was a period of about a year when I was working odd jobs, trying to make money before landing my first “real” job. My wife and I were essentially living on a student’s salary.

I saved up for a used Icom IC-735. I believe I paid nearly $700 for it from an amateur radio shop in New Jersey.

That was $700 for a used radio.

Using the U.S. Consumer Price Index, $700 in 1997 is equivalent to roughly $1,450 today.

And that was just the radio. My antenna, a manual MFJ antenna tuner ($200), and an Astron linear power supply ($190) were all additional expenses. The antenna was the exception, because I built it myself—though I still had to buy the wire, window line, and components ($80), since I hadn’t yet accumulated any supplies of my own.

Compare that with today, when a few hundred dollars will put a tremendously capable QRP or QRO field station in your pack.

But Then I Hear: “That’s a Rip-Off!”

Here’s where this gets interesting.

Because I run QRPer.com and a YouTube channel devoted largely to portable amateur radio, I see an enormous number of comments about the cost of equipment.

And I completely understand where those comments come from, especially when folks feel pricing is too high.

There have been periods in my own life when I could afford virtually anything I wanted, and periods when I couldn’t afford much of anything. I know what it’s like to look at a piece of equipment and think, “That’s simply not in my budget.”

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I can’t afford everything I’d like, either.

But there’s a real difference between something being too expensive for me and something being priced too high (ie., a “rip-off”). Those are not the same thing, and I think we sometimes run them together—especially when we’re talking about products made by small, independent manufacturers.

The Real Cost of Production

Over the past month alone, I’ve seen several comments about products from small businesses and cottage-industry manufacturers—antennas, 3D-printed accessories, portable-radio components, and other specialized bits of gear—where someone declares that $40, $60, $100, $300 or more is “too expensive” and a “rip-off.”

Sticker shock is real. But it’s worth asking what that price is actually covering.

When you buy a product from a small manufacturer, you’re not simply paying for the plastic, wire, connectors, and screws that went into it. You’re paying for the equipment they bought in order to make it, and for the maintenance of that equipment. You’re paying for electricity, packaging, shipping supplies, transaction fees, and all the other overhead that comes with running even a tiny business.

And you’re paying for someone’s time.

Someone had to design the product, order the materials, manufacture it, test it, package it, answer your email, process your payment, print your shipping label, and get it into the mail. All this, while possibly holding down a separate full-time job.

The raw materials are the smallest part of that equation.

If they’re spending an evening making antennas or 3D-printing accessories, that’s an evening they’re not spending doing something else. That opportunity cost is part of the price, and I think it should be.

So when I buy from a small manufacturer, I generally expect to pay a little more. And I’m happy to do it. I see some of that extra cost as paying it forward.

We’re Living Through a Cottage-Industry Renaissance

One of the things I find most fascinating about modern amateur radio is the sheer proliferation of small manufacturers.

Think about it! An individual, a couple, or a small team can come up with an idea, prototype it, manufacture a small run, put it on a website, and sell it to an international audience.

That would have been incredibly difficult and costly when I first became a ham.

Imagine trying to launch a little amateur radio business in 1997. You might have needed to buy a pricey advertisement in QST or CQ. You’d wait for the magazine to be published. Customers might mail you a letter with a check, or call you on the telephone. You’d process the order, package the product, and ship it—and the customer might wait weeks for the turnaround.

Today, someone can have an idea on Monday, put it online Tuesday, take orders Wednesday, ship Thursday, and have it in a customer’s hands within days.

That’s extraordinary when you stop and think about it.

The internet has effectively created an international marketplace for people who make highly specialized amateur radio products in very small quantities.

I love that. And I want those people to succeed!

What About Larger Manufacturers?

The same principle applies further up the scale, although the economics are obviously different.

Take Elecraft. I’ve been using their equipment for 25 years, and I have a particular appreciation for what the company does. The products are designed and manufactured in California—but, as with virtually every modern electronics manufacturer, many of the components are internationally sourced.

That’s simply the reality of modern electronics. Domestic suppliers don’t exist for a lot of the specialized parts that go into a contemporary radio, so those parts arrive through an international supply chain, carrying shipping, import costs, tariffs, and regulatory requirements along with them.

Then there’s everything involved in employing people in a high-cost country: living wages, facilities, equipment, testing, customer service, and warranty support. All of that is real money.

So when I look at the price of an Elecraft radio or antenna, I’m not only looking only at the price tag. I’m looking at what’s behind it—years of accumulated expertise, engineering and manufacturing, and a company that still designs and builds equipment in the United States. And, oh yeah, you can call them on the phone, a person answers it, and within a couple of minutes an expert is helping you one-on-one in real time.

And yes, I’m paying for the higher cost of doing that. When I’m in a position to, I consider that a privilege.

Perspective Changes Everything

The Elecraft KH1 is a good example.

Today, the fully equipped KH1 Edgewood Package is about $1,450.65. That’s obviously a lot of money.

But here’s the perspective that blows my mind: adjusted using the CPI, $1,450 today is roughly equivalent to $700 in 1997.

In other words, a radio I would have considered wildly futuristic as a newly minted ham costs, in inflation-adjusted terms, roughly what I paid for a used IC-735.

$700 1997 dollars for a five-band, fully self-contained, high-performance, 5-watt transceiver with built-in telescoping antenna, automatic antenna tuner, and rechargeable battery, so you can work DX while hiking? That’s almost absurd.

And then consider, on the other end of the pricing spectrum: the QRP Labs QMX. At about $102, that’s roughly $50 in 1997 dollars. What!?

This is where our hobby has been unusually lucky. Food, energy, labor, services—most of what we buy costs more than it used to. But amateur radio technology has followed a very different trajectory, riding economies of scale, improved manufacturing, miniaturization, digital processing, and a truly global electronics industry.

I’m not suggesting every radio today is cheaper in absolute terms than it was thirty years ago. I’m saying the amount of capability we get for our money has changed dramatically.

That’s an important distinction. And in QRP especially, we have an embarrassment of riches.

We’ve Never Had It This Good

My point isn’t that we should all spend more on our radios. It’s that we’ve never had more options.

If you want the very best, it exists: extraordinary receiver performance, sophisticated DSP, integrated batteries and ATUs, color displays, GPS, Bluetooth, remote operation—capabilities that would have read as science fiction when I was licensed. And much of it costs less, in inflation-adjusted terms, than the far less capable gear I saved for in 1997.

If you’d rather spend a few hundred dollars, that station exists too. Buy used. Build an antenna. Put together a kit.

Whichever end of that range you’re shopping from, I meant what I said at the start: you couldn’t be entering this hobby at a better time!

And there’s never been a better time to be the person building radios in a garage, a workshop, or a small factory.

That’s worth remembering the next time we look at a price tag and think, “Wow, that’s expensive!”

Sometimes it is.

But sometimes, perhaps, it’s simply the price of making something amazing.