Google your area for a ham radio club. Met up with them, get your license and maybe someone has some used radio equipment. It sort of depends on what you want to do in ham as to the price. But I found meeting people in my area that area experienced was very helpful.

I got involved for $130. It can be done for less by buying used rather than new radios.

For my $130, I took the licence exam ($10) and bought an Icom T2H handheld transceiver ($120). The price of this radio has come down, incidentally, because it is now discontinued, and the last price I saw for it was $80. Being discontinued, you can probably find it for even less if someone is clearing them out.

This past weekend was Field Day. One of the things that the ham clubs try to do on Field Day is get press attention. Look in your local paper to see if any of the clubs in your area succeeded, and that may give you something to grab hold of as far as finding a local club.