I was fairly active in Ham Radio, until about 8 years ago, when I kind of lost interest. I was just clearing out some old electronics and discovered a 2 meter rig, a Yaesu Vx 5, a lot of cables and several antennas. The tower is long gone, but I could do a treetop mount and get to 80-90' AGL with little trouble (thanks to the buddies at the fire company one district over and their 100' ladder truck!)

I'm kind of interested in creating a local, moderate speed data network of sorts, I've read up on Winlink, and perhaps getting into voice modes again. I have a Technician class license that is still active (I kept it active because it allows you to have a mobile scanner in most states and in some other countries).

Assuming a minimal budget what would you suggest I start with these days? Seems like all the equipment is very different than when I stopped.