Affiliate Disclosure
Short version: commissions on purchases, no paid placements, and citations are never affiliate links.
The short answer
HamRadioSetup.com earns affiliate commissions on qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. No product can buy a position, a rating or a mention. Links to FCC rules and reference sources are plain citations with no tracking.
HamRadioSetup.com earns money when a reader buys something through a link here. That costs you nothing extra. As an Amazon Associate the site earns from qualifying purchases.
What is not for sale
A position in a roundup. A rating. A mention. There are no paid placements and no fee to be considered, and a manufacturer cannot buy its way into a build list. Companies are welcome to send documentation and measurement data, which is treated exactly like any other published source and gives them no advantage beyond being easier to research accurately.
When the right answer earns us nothing
This happens often in amateur radio, where a lot of the best equipment comes from small manufacturers selling direct with no affiliate programme. Those products are still named and still recommended where they are the right answer, because a site that only recommends what it can monetise is not worth reading.
Be aware of what the button next to such an item does. Since there is no relationship with that maker, the button searches a retailer for comparable equipment rather than for that exact product. If a direct-sold item is the one you want, go to the maker and search the name. That is worth stating plainly rather than letting a search result look like the product just described.
Citations are never affiliate links
Links to FCC rules, the band plan, exam question pools and similar regulatory or reference sources carry no tracking parameters at all. A reader checking a rule should land on the rule. Routing a compliance citation through a commercial redirect would be indefensible and the site does not do it anywhere.
How links are marked
Commercial links carry rel="sponsored nofollow noopener", which is the
standard machine readable disclosure, and open in a new tab. Product cards name the
retailer on the button itself so you know where you are going before you click.
Prices and your own judgement
Prices are snapshots from when a page was written or last verified, and this category moves constantly. Build totals are planning figures for that reason. Confirm the current price on the retailer page before ordering.
Recommendations here are researched opinions offered in good faith, not guarantees. Warranty, returns and defects are between you and the retailer or manufacturer. See about for how recommendations are made and safety for the limits of the technical guidance.
Common questions
Questions people ask about this
How does this site make money?
Affiliate commissions on qualifying purchases made through links here, at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate the site earns from qualifying purchases. That is the whole model: no paid placements, no sponsored roundup positions, no fee to be considered.
Does a commission change what gets recommended?
No, and the site is structured so you can check that. It regularly names the cheaper option as the pick, tells readers to spend on an antenna rather than a radio, and says outright when an upgrade is not worth it. A recommendation that only ever pointed at the most expensive item would be worthless to a reader and obvious to anyone comparing pages.
What happens when the best product pays you nothing?
It still gets named, because leaving it out would misrepresent the category. A good deal of amateur radio equipment is sold direct by small manufacturers with no affiliate programme at all. Where that happens the item is named and described, and the buy button next to it searches a retailer for comparable equipment rather than pretending to be the named product. The page says so where it applies.
Are the FCC and reference links affiliate links?
Never. Links to FCC rules, band plans, exam question pools and other regulatory or reference sources are plain citations carrying no tracking of any kind. Routing a compliance citation through a commercial redirect would be indefensible, and a reader checking a rule should land on the rule.
How are prices kept current?
Every price is a snapshot from when the page was written or last verified, which is why build totals are described as planning figures. Prices in this category move constantly. Confirm the current price on the retailer page before ordering, and expect a multi thousand dollar station build to have drifted by some margin.
Disclaimer Researched guidance for planning purposes, not professional engineering, electrical or legal advice. Antenna work, RF exposure, mast and tower work, grounding and battery handling all carry real risk that depends on your specific site and installation. Verify anything safety-critical against current FCC rules, the National Electrical Code and the manufacturer's own documentation, and hire a professional where the job calls for one. We research equipment from published specifications, regulatory documents and verified owner reviews rather than claiming hands-on testing we have not done.