I've played with a cheap Chinese clone sdr receiver and LNA and filter and have received FT8 calls from Indonesia and Australia on a length of scrap wire I hung

I've played with a cheap Chinese clone sdr receiver and LNA and filter and have received FT8 calls from Indonesia and Australia on a length of scrap wire I hung up in my loft here in London UK. Calls from all over Europe and from USA are pretty trivial to pick up. I would be interested in getting licensed to TX, but then to apply that practically I'd need to invest also in 100s - 1000s of £££ of gear rather than a mere 10s. And then once I've done that ... I think the novelty would be mostly gone if I'm honest. I don't think the practical expense seems worth it.