A ham radio would be great and is on my wish list. I do have a short wave radio.
Did you have a specific radio or budget in mind?
Cheap but serviceable. What do you suggest?
New cheap? ... or
used cheap?
The least expensive option is to scrounge used radios at "hamfests." You can search for nearby hamfests here:
http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendarIf you are unfamiliar with the gear, you should have an experienced and trustworthy ham help you evaluate any prospective purchase. Last year I was reaching for my wallet about 3 footsteps behind a guy who bought a nice used HF radio for $75, but don't expect such deals to be common. Too often I think such relics are over-priced, especially since used radios have no warranty and parts for repair may be hard to find.
As for new radios, "cheap" is relative. Currently I think the best "bang for the buck" is the recently released
ICOM IC-7300. If you wait a year for all the excitement to die down, the radio will probably be $500 cheaper. The 7300 is the first "SDR" (Software Defined Radio) from a
major manufacturer. It uses inexpensive software to accomplish (or exceed) what older radios do with expensive hardware, hence the radio is a bargain at half to a third of the cost of equivalent radios.