While the upconverters are nifty if you're not in a pretty rural area or going to do some serious antenna work you'll be heavily limited by conditions at <30Mhz

While the upconverters are nifty if you're not in a pretty rural area or going to do some serious antenna work you'll be heavily limited by conditions at <30Mhz. +1 on looking at getting a license though. It opens up a whole new world of experimentation and capabilities. Even on 2m I still get a kick covering 80-100mi with our local repeater network.