What Radio Should I Start With.

  The choice of what radio should I start with depends on a few different factors. The first one would be how much can you afford. The second factor would be what bands do I want to work. Will you be interested in the high frequencies, vhf ,uhf or all three. The third choice would be do I want a fairly simple radio to control or do I want a more sophisticated radio. The simpler radio may be a good choice for a beginner in the hobby.
  Once you have various radios in mind I would start to read reviews by the hams that own them. One of the places I like to go to for information and reviews is eham.net. They seem to have a wealth of information on all kinds of ham equipment. The reviews can provide you with the good, the bad and the ugly. Sorry about that I borrowed that from an old movie. I would also suggest to use various browsers on the internet such as google and yahoo to search for reviews on the different radios out there.
 Another route that one can take when deciding on a ham radio is to go with a used radio. There are numerous sites out there whether it be the classified swap add, ebay or one of the ham radio equipment stores online. There are some sites out there such as ham radio hut that have alot of equipment for sale including used radios for sale. This type of site seems to be associated with ebay, because when you click on an item that's where it takes you. Once you like a radio you can then use a site such as RigPix to look at information about the radio and as well a a good picture of the radio.
 Finally one thing I would advise is buyer beware. There are alot of places out there that just want your money for a piece of junk. Before you purchase any product out there look for reviews on the place it is coming from. If you are using ebay you can look at the persons reviews on there store to check out the ratings. You can also read the reviews whether good or bad. I would also make sure you have insurance on the item you purchase. I have seen alot of damaged items come through the postal services out there.