HF and _the economics_ of Ham Radio

Ronald Zond writes:

"Good point, but carry the argument further. Youngsters don't have the money for ham radio."

Not necessarily. If one wants to go out and buy the latest ricebox with every feature known to God and man, then yes, they _don't_ have the money. Hell, _I_ don't have that kind of money, and I don't know a whole lot of other people who have the geld stashed around to drop a few kilobucks on a transceiver, tower, beam, rotor, blahblah etc. But instead, one thing I keep suggesting to younger hams is to go and find good, older _used_ gear...like boatanchors, from which one not only learns how to operate, one also can learn a lot about how ones' radio _works_, because these things are simple enough that you can 'lift the lid' and figure out what's doing what inside. It's sort of like the same trend in cars, where modern cars have so much crap under the hood that you can't even tell where the oil goes in the engine anymore, but if you wind the clock back 20+ years, you know where and what everything under the hood is.
I recently helped a 14-year-old ham who frequents our local .76 machine in finding a good transceiver for his use for when he steps up to tech-plus and then on to general. And we located a nice Swan 350 for him for $150 plus shipping. Needed a little tinkering to get it going proper, but that's a rig he'll be using for quite some time. It's built like a tank, and when he finally moves up to serious phone operation, it has the power he'll need to punch thru those pileups. But it's not like this was an 'unusual bargain'; there are plenty of good rigs out there that could be very useful...and available...to younger hams coming into the service. They don't cost a bushel of money, they work great, they're built to last, and hey...they _deserve_ to still be in use, especially in something as important as bringing up the next generation of ops.
There are two points, though...first one needs to be directed at most of the major ham gear manufacturers. Some of these people need to be set down and had some simple lessons in economics drilled into their heads. As in "why price something so far up in scale that so many want yet so few can afford?" I'm sure they'd say that, well, it makes people want these premium devices so much more. Not me, though. Makes me look thru the used gear ads more, instead. Would I rather have a Kenwood TS-60 at nearly a grand, or a nice Swan 250 at 1/4th or less of that for 6M SSB work? You should be able to guess. The Swan's drifty, doesn't have the bells-n-whistles, but it gets me there. And do I need the finest 6M yagi I can get? No, not if I can build something myself...and I have, for 2M portable work. Wire, insulators, bits of junk and stuff, and you can put together a good 'hook' that doesn't bleed the wallet. Anyway...
Other point goes out to hams who hoard radios. Now, yes, I have a few radios myself. I don't have a _roomful_ of them, though, and I just have to ask, pointely, 'whatfor you _need_ alla those things, booya?'. Do you _really_ need ten or so transceivers when you really only use one or two? Do we need to get you some Zoloft for your hoarding OCD problems? Hm? These radios, instead of sitting around gathering dust (or growing mold, depending on how they've been stored), should be looked at as 'seed material' for new hams. Make them available to these new ops for cheap if you're not doing anything with them. Hell, _give_ them to new ops if you can afford it. Loan them, whatever. Look at this as an investment in amateur radio's future..._your_ investment. You're not doing anything with these devices, so let someone who really wants to use them instead, and further the interest!
Bottom line: ham radio need not cost an arm and a leg. And because of this, pretty much _anyone_ should be able to jump in on it. Economics shouldn't have to be a factor in who's in, who's out, and how old they should have to be.