>>573670>It's expensiveLike most other hobbies, it's as expensive as you want to make it.
Nice HF rigs, antenna, tower, cable/connectors, switches, power supplies, tuner... that can run $10k+ if you really go all-in.
On the other side, you can get a UV5R chinese baofeng for about $30 and bang around on VHF/UHF.
>complicatedNot really. Basics of it are pretty simple/straightforward, especially analog.
>little of which translates into useful knowledgeTill phones/internet go out (see katrina, sandy), or you're somewhere without signal. I have better coverage in the mountains with my handheld than I do with my phone by a large margin.
>full of weird old menHF, yes. VHF/UHF, sometimes.
>just nuisance-deleted a local repeater the area weird-old-guy jumped on to ragchew, >pic relatedInternet and cellular has definitely replaced a lot of the communication aspect, but it's certainly not dead or obsolete.
If it's something you wanna do, go for it.
License is cheap, and with the chinese radios on the market today, cost of entry is extremely low.
