I often see this term "entry level radio" in theses various eHam forums especially relating to questions posted by the newer hams and ask myself who decides what is entry level and what is not. Other than a meaningless non factual based opinion of an individual I fail to see the usefulness of the term and potential confusion of its use.
As far as I can see these individuals appear to think that the term is some how related to cost, number of functions/modes, manufacturer, power output, better spec sheets ect.. Does this mean an MFJ Cub is an entry level radio compared to a KX3 when the Cub users only interest is 3w or less CW only single band operation with a very small light weight rig? Does this mean that an IC-7200 is an entry level rig compared to a IC-756 Pro111 when the 7200 users only interest is casual non contest operations? Or is a vhf/uhf HT an entry level radio when a new tech's only interest is local repeater operation?
This term does nothing productive in regards to recommending a particular radio to meet an individual's operating style or needs. Until someone can enlighten me as to what the value of this term is relating to ham radio I will just file it under other meaningless Mantras such as Higher is ALWAYS better, ,Life is to short for QRP, Gotta get that SWR down to 1:1 and CW is dead, all of which I am sure is of great benefit to a new ham.