I mentioned it elsewhere, but a Baofeng or other inexpensive dual band (2 meter (144Mhz) & 70 cm (440MHz)) radio plus something like a uBitx (https://www.hfsign

I mentioned it elsewhere, but a Baofeng or other inexpensive dual band (2 meter (144Mhz) & 70 cm (440MHz)) radio plus something like a uBitx (https://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx-v6/ https://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx-v6/) full-band (0.5Mhz - 30Mhz) HF radio, plus a copy of the ARRL's Antenna Book (http://www.arrl.org/arrl-antenna-book http://www.arrl.org/arrl-antenna-book) and some wire will see you far less than $500 and get you on most bands. If you prefer to buy not build your antennas, you can still do that for less than $500 all in, you just might have to look at used antennas.