Is ham radio something fun to get into...

So are you saying new radio's are actually worse?

I wanted to get into radio for outdoorsy shit, but none of the radios out there are going to ever be as rugged as the shit I carried in the Army, so I kind of don't feel like spending a lot for a radio that doesn't even have water resistance.

Look into commercial grade radios.

It's kind of fun if you have the resources/space to do it. I have a general license but live in an apartment so it's kind of shitty for ham stuff.

yes, out of the box they are worse but i wouldn't be put off by that as they are easy to mod. here is the mod for the ts480g4gcp.co.uk/TS-480/TS-480_Better_AM_Broadcast_Reception.pdf
it just involves moving a jumper.

I was interested in this back in the mid '90s re Linux and AX.25. Does anyone still do data over it?

why do they hinder them like that?

I just want to get my dad a regular radio with really good reception. No ham stuff.

to prevent receiver overload if you happen to be located near a powerful station I guess. ham radios are designed to be sensitive to pick up low power stations but that also makes them vulnerable to damage when listening to stations transmitting hundreds of kilowatts.

I don't know much about inexpensive consumer receivers. you could pick up an older home cinema system and have a loud fm/am reciever. i own the sony str-dg700 which works ok as an amp but the fm reception is shitty on weak stations. older cinema receivers such as my own have a weak demand as they don't run from hdmi audio. although they have many hdmi ports they just act as a switchbox.

this guy is autistic as fuck I love it

too bad he has memedreads, he'd be an upstanding white goy otherwise