Just what it says -- this is the place for any discussions not related to Buying, Selling and Trading ham gear. The discussion must be related to Ham Radio.
Yes you can dump alot of money in the hobby! I does depend on what band and where you live as how easy ham radio is. I run 200 watts on 75m and talk just fine on a stormy night. When other guys can't be heard running double the power as me. That is,because they are using G5RV or a vertical because of antenna restrictions or bought into the "antenna propaganda" advertised in most "ham magizines". Some locations are just "noisy" and you can't get your noise floor down to where you can communicate. Remember simple is best when it comes to antennas and almost all radios are going to talk about the same,but the receiver is where the real diffrence is. A 718 icom will sound as good as a 756 pro 3 stock,but the receive won't be near as good.