How difficult is it to build and operate either of those?
Seems like any WRT would do considering some of their tutorials. They can be made using barbecue grill if you need it cheap and can follow a fairly comprehensive guide. Not to mention that you can make this using a Pringles can. How to guide. EDIT: Oh, and a chemistry tip about removing rust from steel: just drop that shit inside a glassware that's big enough and fill with ~40% phosphoric acid. Works better on carbon-rich steel, but any type can be cleaned when soaked for long enough. EDIT2: I had to remove rust from one thing recently and made an experiment that's quite relevant. After applying heat to the object that had to be cleaned the rust almost slithered off of it in a way similar to cheap paint when treated with acetone. Phosphoric acid works, even without extra heat, but the result was significantly better and done much more quickly then without heating the object up.Antennas
Oh, I reckon most use of ham radio is voice. For local communications, generally people use handheld UHF or VHF radios and a repeater that rebroadcasts transmissions 1 2. For long distance communications, most people use HF radios, which transmit in frequencies that can be bounced off the sky and ground! 1 2 HF equipment is usually pricier than VHF/UHF stuff, but that's probably partly because it draws the interest of more serious nerds. A couple CB bands overlap the ham HF range and, given the right atmospheric conditions, can be used for long-distance communication, called shooting skip. Of course, you can also use the oldest radio mode out there: morse.