A ham license is about $35 for the license fee, about $20 for the book, and about $10 for the coffee to keep you going while you read the book.

If you want to buy your own radio, a basic 2M mobile rig is about $170 or so. Figure about $30 or so for magnet-mount antenna. Or, you could build your own yagi antenna from some PVC, some cable, and a metal tape-measure -- figure $20 or so. A VHF SWR meter will be about $40. Throw in a marine deep-cycle battery or two, a battery charger, and some miscellaneous hardware, and you are set.