I recently had pretty good luck with HRO. bought a new yaesu 1802 from them for $123 no shipping. Arrived promptly in all orginal packaging with no damage. Have nothing but good to say about them....

Well, some folks are never happy. Frankly, a scanner is how I got interested in ham radio. The local ham club(which I now am a member of)does their weekly net and it always popped up on my RS scanner. So, I'd sit and listen to em talk and sounded like they might have some fun sometimes. So I looked up the contact person for the club and inquired as to how I could test for my ham license. Of course I ended up joining the club and tommorrow will be going to my first Field Day event. Some people just dont' like the idea of people listening to either ham conversations or the police or fire. But the way I see it, until everything goes encrypted, I'll continue to listen, it's not illegal and I like to know what's going on in my community. I'm not trying to be nosy or break the law. As it is more and more agencies are going to more expensive digital systems and it takes a more expensive scanner to hear them, right now the going price for one is about $500. Fortunately my area hasn't all gone digital yet bacause I want to spend that money on ham gear instead of a stupid scanner that I can't transmit on.

  Geez, where are you guys from? You sound like some of the "light police" on a couple of other forums I've visited lately. I'm certainly not for a bunch of blinky lights on one's POV unless it is absolutely needed but why is everyone jumping on this guy just for asking a question? At least he's asking and not just putting a bunch of illegal crap on his vehicle. The ones that make me mad are the ones who put 15 kinds of lights on their vehicle and a siren and then try to JUSTIFY why they need it, like security calling themselves "law enforcement officers" and such. Literally making themselves out to me more than they are.(Posers) No, legitimate first responders probably don't want a ham operator they didn't call for showing up and getting in the way. But not everyone who shows up on these forums and asks questions is a whacker, in fact I noticed most real whackers don't ask questions, they merely want to show off how "official" they are.

  I tend to disagree slightly with your viewpoint as to why the hobby is ?dying?. BTW alot of hobbies are "dying" but they are still around....I think radio is dying chiefly because younger people are introduced to cell phones and computers at younger ages so why mess with radio and getting a license when you can whip out the cell and  text 15 of your freinds? Some of us like me have absolutely no interest in cells and learning to text so I preferred the radio, but a lot of people are into that stuff. I have a least two people I work with that can't do their job because they have to stop several times a shift and text someone. If I carried my radio around like that I'd get fired. Yeah a certain number of people from that "other service" have come over to ham radio but you can't stop them if they passed the exam and paid the fee. And many have come over because they used to be law abiding recreational CB'ers who got tired of the garbage and abuse on CB.

 
  You raise a good point, if one is over a certain age it truly wouldn't be worth it. One collector's society that I belong to offers life membership but prorates it on a scale according to your age so the older ones don't end up paying as much as the younger people. Maybe the ARRL should look at something along those lines and they might get more life members. I've only got a few more years and it will no longer be beneficial either.

 Okay, I shouldn't bite on this one but I'm gonna:
  They can file petitions all they want but the fact is: If you're worried about extemists out there, wouldn't it be better to have the name and address of those on the air that just a bunch of unlicensed yahoos transmitting whereever they want? Sorry but I don't buy that one, sorry, shouldn't be feeding the troll, couldn't resist though....I would expect with our current government there's gonna be MORE regulation of amatuer radio, not less. These guys are nothing if not paranoid. Just look at that statement about "potential terrorists" lately. SHeesh, my husband could be one of those, he is an Iraq vet!

  I even heard that said of churches, where someone visited and the people were "either friendly or "cliqish". We tend to gravitate to people like us that we know....

By the way, it's KDOHDH.

Finally pulled the trigger and took my Technician License exam yesterday and (yeah!) I passed! Am just -sigh- waiting on my callsign to show up now! The examiners talked me into trying the General Exam, just to see how I'd do. Of course I didn't pass, but did fair for not studying anything for it. Once I've been on the air a while I might decide to study for it eventually. Once I know a little more about what I'm doing. There was a lot more electronic theory and stuff on that exam, at least now I know a little about what it looks like.

  Sorry you had a bad experience. I just went to my first meeting of the Pueblo Ham Club and was very pleased. I was a bit skiddish to be begin with because I was afraid I might be the only female there. Suprisingly, there were two other women there and they went out of their way to make me feel welcome. The men were a mixed bag, some were kind of stand offish but a couple did walk up and introduce themselves and were very nice. They gave me a couple of copies of their lastest newsletters and a copy of the local repeaters and one of the ladies gave me her email address and clued me in on the clubs upcoming events. The meeting was pretty formal with them following strict meeting rules but overall it was a good experience. I will certainly try to go back next month. I am not normally a really extroverted person either.

  I decided to weigh in on this dicussion even though you can see I'm not even a licensed ham yet(hopefully this month I will be). Back in the late 80's my husband was in the military and we got moved for a 6 month assignment to TX.  He was looking for a hobby and the guys at his base talked him into studying for his Ham license. He went to classes for weeks, built a code practice simulator and practiced and practiced that CW...well he passed his novice exam and got his license, and never used it. Never even bought a radio, said we couldn't afford it with small kids and all. Ican remember being a bored military wife and reading all those issue of CQ magazine he got and watching him practicing. I thought...no way I'd ever spend that much time on that stuff. Well, last year I started looking for a new hobby given the kids are grown and out of the house, started playing with scanners and naturally thought about getting my ham ticket. It was then that I learned the FCC no longer required the code for licensure. I am testing for my Tech ticket on the 21st of this month. Am I glad I can do it without learning the code? Yeah sure, but I do plan to study the code later on, kind of feels like something is missing, it kind of set ham operators apart because they knew CW, I can remember even studying a little of it when my husband was studying back in the day for his. Couldn't see how I could EVER get proficient at it but I think nowdays I could if I tried. I think it was one thing that set hams apart from CB'ers and others, even if it really ISN"T needed.....Not to be critical but just and opinion.