The bottom line with buying a rig is that both solid state and tube types have good and bad points...it's simply your choice to make.
With radios, (transceivers, rigs), the best thing for you to do is to stick with a known name brand such as Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, Alinco, Ten-Tec and a few others out there that have excellent reputations.  New or used is strictly your choice based on your buying habits, bank account, etc.
There are many good used transceivers out there from individuals, ham dealers, website auctions, estate sales, etc. Let the buyer beware! Shop around and ALWAYS try to get some sort of warranty to go with it if possible. Unless you have seen and heard the rig operate with your own eyes and ears.....be careful about putting out that hard earned money to a "stranger". This is just common sense.
If you've done your research and have almost decided on a particular brand and model......look at reviews by other hams who have owned it...check out the Product reviews on eham.net.

New Radios
You can spend literally thousands dollars for a brand new top of the line transceiver with gold plated bells and whistles and get an operator's manual the size of the New York city telephone directory that comes with it! It's sole purpose is to get your signal to the same location as the old used "boat anchor" for a couple of hundred dollars versus thousands! There are numerous models and brands to chose from that are less expensive under $1000.00. It all depends on the extras that you want to pay for. Remember, your station IS NOT A COMMERCIAL BROADCAST STATION!

Antennas~
Build your own....this says it in a nutshell!
You don't learn anything about antennas by buying one except that a homebrew antenna will most likely outperform that whizz bang store bought over priced conductor of RF and will be many times less expensive!

I realize that some of you that are new to Ham radio may not have the experience to build a suitable antenna for 10 meters but the more simple types like dipoles or verticals are very easy to build from materials you may already have laying around or that can be purchased locally from Lowes, Home Depot or a hardware, electrical or plumbing supply store. MOST ARE MADE FROM WIRE!
If you feel like saving some money that could be put into your station equipment, then check out the HF section of the antenna project page on this site. You are on Hamuniverse.com by the way....see...I snuck in a commercial on you! Also look around the VHF side of the page. There are a few there that can be modified to work on 10 meters easily.

Look for dipole types or verticals that can be easily used on 10 meters and have fun building your own! Later, after some experience under your belt, you can get into Yagi's (beams). When you use homebrew antennas you will get the satisfaction of knowing that your signal is coming from something that YOU built and you saved some money in the process!

Comparing antenna sizes between 2 meters and 10 meters!
When you operate on 2 meters, one wavelength is about 80 inches long.

At 10 meters, an antenna that is one wavelength long is about 33 feet long!
About 5 times as large.

ON THE AIR!

Some simple operating procedures for 10 meter voice!
Tuning SSB
One major difference between HF and the higher bands like 2 meters and above is the fact that FM (which takes up more spectrum) is not allowed on HF except in the higher class license portion of 10 meters which you are not authorized.
The SSB voice mode is the primary voice mode used on HF for voice communications due to the much more narrow bandwidth of the signal and the efficiency of SSB. AM is sometimes used on the lower HF bands.
Remember....you are now on HF...not VHF or UHF.

Unlike FM, the SSB voice mode is very different and a bit more difficult AT FIRST to tune if you have never used it. It is a communications mode, not Hi Fi Stereo like FM Broadcasting! Don't expect it to be crystal clear like a good FM 2 meter signal. The bandwidth of SSB voice transmitters is much less than good FM.
Just selecting a frequency with your VFO and expecting it to "be on frequency" every time may not work in all cases due to variances between some ham transceiver calibration.

It is not a channelized mode. It is a variable frequency mode meaning that you can adjust the transmitter frequency continuously without interruption from one end of the ham band to the other. Your receiver tracks the transmitter frequency so you are listening and transmitting on the same frequency. (as long as both are operating properly and are aligned to factory specifications) The term VFO stands for Variable Frequency Oscillator.
On HF starting with the 160 meter band and continuing thru 40 meters, the LSB mode is used by gentlemen's agreement except 60 meters (USB only).

Beginning with 20 meters, the USB mode is used up thru the higher bands.
Here again, by gentlemen's agreement. There is no FCC regulation that states that you must use one or the other of the SSB modes on any band with the exception of 60 meters. Both stations, yours and your contact, must be on the same mode to communicate. You can't be on USB and your contact on LSB or the other way around.....just won't work! (Actually there is a way to do it but not practical for most hams with limited budgets using different transmitters and receivers).

A good way to learn to tune SSB (single side band) is to practice by just playing around the lower HF bands (listening only of course) like 20 meters in the USB mode. If your antenna is a monoband antenna for only 10 meters, you will still hear the stronger stations on the lower bands. Put your receiver on 20 meters. If you have a "clarifier" control which allows you to fine tune the receiver...TURN IT OFF.
Just tune your VFO across a station and tune his voice until it becomes more natural sounding. You will notice that at some times the voice will tune from a high pitch "Donald Duck sounding" to a lower pitch or vice versa depending on whether or not you are going up in frequency or down in frequency with your VFO. Stop at the point where the voice is the MOST natural sounding to you.....now your receiver and transmitter are on his frequency plus or minus the accuracy of your ears and understanding that you may not know exactly what his voice sounds like in person. You will get used to the way sideband sounds when tuning and you will get to the point where the voices sound perfectly normal by fine tuning the VFO.

Now that you have practiced tuning SSB, your antenna is in the air and you have tuned it to perfection ...homebrew hopefully...and you have fired up the rig, the band selector is set for 10 meters, USB mode, clarifier off, volume up......your VFO is set to 28.4mhz.....you listen.........nothing......you adjust the VFO up and down the voice portion.......still nothing but background noise, hiss and static!

Don't get alarmed....remember you are on 10 meters. This band is full of surprises and may be open and everyone is doing the same as you.....listening. This is no joke...it happens very often, or it could be "dead", meaning that the ionosphere is resting for another bombardment of 10 meter operators!
If you should happen to be in the downside of the 11 year cycle as referenced above in this article, you have a choice......just keep tuning around....listening....waiting....more waiting....listening................or,
CALL CQ! (Means "calling any station' and internationally recognized on HF)

Making A Call!
On HF, it is proper procedure to listen first for several seconds to make certain that the frequency is NOT in use. Then get on the air and ask "Is the frequency in use?" several times.....saying your call sign at the end..........hearing no response...then call "CQ CQ CQ.....CQ CQ CQ........CQ CQ CQ" say your callsign phonetically slowly, ie, NOVEMBER FOUR UNIFORM JULIET WHISKEY.....(Please don't use my callsign...HEE HEE), just insert yours and then unkey....listen for someone to come back to your call.

If the 10 meter band wizards are with you, someone may answer your call!
Don't get discouraged if they don't....just keep trying.....then when you least expect it...........you may hear your call sign coming back to you from another ham from around the world or around the block! Don't be shy....this is what you have been waiting for.....go back to him with his call sign and again identify your station...say OVER and wait for his response. PLEASE DON'T SAY OVER, OVER, OVER, OVER....THIS SOUNDS LIKE A BROKEN RECORD and wastes your time and theirs.

Just remember that if we are at or near the bottom of the 11 year cycle, band conditions can only get better and better over the next upward swing of the cycle, peak out, and then start back down in the continuation of the cycle. As this article is written, 2007, we are at the bottom and starting back up!
Get ready over the next few years.....fantastic things to come from 10 meters with conditions slowly improving as each day and month passes!

WORKING DX! (DX = Distant Transmitter or Transmission)
When you operate on 10 meters during and around the peak time of the 11 year solar cycle, you are in for some fantastic fun working stations not only in your local area, and the U.S., but from around the world! The entire 10 meter band comes alive with activity sometimes lasting into the wee hours of the night and then starting back up very early in the morning.

If you are a DX chaser, then 10 meters is your band during it's peak. You can talk to stations all over Europe early with lots of  English stations, Spain, etc in the morning, South and Central America around midday and then continue your adventures with Australia, New Zealand and the Far East, not to mention Japan, and of course U.S. stations sprinkled all throughout the day.
You will hear stations from other countries that are sometimes difficult to get for other Hams and these stations create what we call "Pileups" on HF with hundreds of other Hams from all over trying to make contact with them at the same time. Sounds like hundreds of people talking all at once and it is! Most of the hams can not hear each other but they can all hear that rare DX station. This is where operator skill, signal levels, good antennas with good side and front to back rejection and forward gain may come into play. A good DX operator in another country can take control of the "Pileup" situation and ask for specific calls from specific locations or call signs beginning with certain letters, certain states, countries, etc. This way there is some order to this confusion.......be patient and keep trying!  YOU WILL MAKE DX CONTACTS!
The preferred method of making a call when chasing DX is to say "CQ DX, CQ DX, CQ DX" then your call sign. Or if your looking for a contact in a particular country you can say CQ Australia about 2 to 3 times then your call sign and the word over if your looking for hams in Australia.

The standard "CQ" call is telling everyone listening that you are literally calling any station. When you use "CQ DX", this tell the local stations within your country that you are trying for OTHER countries.

Identifying call signs from other countries 

Identifying countries by call signs can be a very confusing situation for the new ham on 10 meters who has been talking just locally on 2 meters or the upper bands above 10 meters.

Other countries use prefixes in their call signs just as we do here in the U.S. to identify the country of origin. Here is a link to a very complete list of prefixes for other countries that will be very helpful to you in trying to determine which country has what prefix:

ITU COUNTRY CALL SIGN PREFIXES
List of Country Prefixes Click the link, save the page and print for later use.

QSL CARDS:
Lots of DX chasers trade QSL cards between far off stations. A QSL card is a written confirmation of a contact between two Amateur Radio stations in the form of a "post card" sized card with the important information that each station would like to know about the other station. It usually contains the station call sign, date, frequency, signal report, time of contact, and other information about the contact that confirms the contact between the stations and is usually signed by the operator. You can design your own QSL cards and have them printed up at most good printing shops or order them in a pre-designed format over the internet. Over a period of time you can line the walls of your shack with confirmation QSL cards from all over the world. A word of "warning"....... this can get expensive with the postage to other countries but can be very rewarding in the long term years later when you look back on them with good memories. Many worldwide friends have been made with the exchanging of QSL cards.

Don't give up chasing that DX or those locals....keep trying....there is only about 11 years between each solar cycle.....so you have plenty of time...........before the next peak, or a local could call you when the band is dead.........or if you want more HF excitement than 10 meters can offer then there is another option for you to pursue to get more action on HF...........,

Start studying for your General Class ticket while waiting for someone to answer your call !  After you study for a while, get on 2 meters, make a sked with someone and meet them on 10 meters, remember they have 10 meter privileges just like you......or.....study for your General ticket......or study for your General ticket......hey....I'm repeating myself when I say study for your General ticket........have fun!
Study for your General.............you are only 35 questions away!
There, I repeated myself again.......YOU CAN DO IT!
73 Don ~ N4UJW Hamuniverse.com

More good 10 Meter information for new hams:

Good Operating Procedures, tips, hints, tricks

W5JO 10 Meter Information