Hamfag here. There are three levels of license from the FCC in the USA. Each license level requires you to pass a written test. The tests in the USA used to be administered by the FCC but now are given by volunteers with FCC oversight. Morse code is no longer a requirement but it is still useful to know. There are similar license levels and tests in other countries. Technician is the first and easiest license to obtain. A lot of this test is about radio operating procedures, rules and regulations, etc. There is a little bit about electromagnetic theory. This level grants you access to the VHF and UHF bands and frequencies (2 meters, 1.25 meters and 70 centimeters) as well as limited access to the 10 meter band and CW (Morse code) in some other bands. The U/VHF frequencies are limited to line of site propagation (~10 - 15 miles depending on terrain). Transmitting through a repeater you can reach much farther but still only regional at best. Equipment for U/VHF is pretty inexpensive. Baofeng radios are cheap, but you get what you pay for. You can spend anywhere from $50 - $400 on equipment. The best equipment is available from the "Big Three" radio manufacturers (Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood). These are all Japanese manufacturers; there aren't any USA based manufacturers left that still make amateur radio equipment that I know of. Baofeng is the best known Chinese manufacturer of amateur radio equipment. They are cheap but you get what you pay for. If you are just starting out in amateur radio a Chinese handheld transceiver is a good option to see if you like the hobby before spending more money though. Alinco is another Japanese company that also makes decent equipment but they aren't as big as the others. General class license is the next level. The test is a bit harder but not too terrible. If you finish your Technician test with enough time you may be offered the chance to take the General test at your same testing session. General class is where "real" ham radio begins on the HF bands. You have privileges on all of the amateur radio bands but not all frequencies of those bands. With HF you can communicate across the world if conditions are right. The equipment to get started on HF is a bit more expensive but you can get a HF rig for ~800 - 900 dollars. Used equipment is less of course, but again you get what you pay for. You will also need an antenna but a simple dipole antenna can be bought or constructed relatively cheaply. The final license level is Amateur Extra. The test is quite a bit harder, but nothing insurmountable with some dedicated studying. The only real benefit to Extra is that it grants you access to all frequencies on all amateur bands. There is enough spectrum granted to the General license however to make this an only modest benefit however. Many hams stay at the General license level for many years and are very happy there. So don't go rushing to get Amateur Extra just because it is "the best". You don't need any special equipment to make use of the additional Amateur Extra frequencies. Another good resource (in the USA at least) is the Amateur Radio Relay League (www.arrl.org). Some don't like them because they haven't done "enough" to protect amateur spectrum. There is some validity to that criticism but they're the best resource that I know of and they are only a civilian organization so they can only influence the FCC so much. They do have good resources for licensing and testing however. *edit* added additional details *edit 2* fixing typos and adding details