I've had good results with surplus equipment if you want to go that route & don't mind vacuum tube equipment. RAK, RBA & RBL series used to be popular in the LWCA. I owned a RAK-5 or 6 regen radio & got a lot of NDBs with it. A good source for surplus equipment is Fair Radio Sales,
https://www.fairradio.com/catalog.php?mode=view&categoryid=163 & there are others. Universal Radio also sells used radios [that's where I bought my Drake R7 for about half price]. I've also owned [now obsolete] Heathkit GR-54 [also has vacuum tubes] & GR-78 receivers which can often be found fairly cheap. Ditto for Heath's SW-7800 but I don't recommend buying one unless you want to jump in & make a number of circuit improvements posted elsewhere in this section. Icom R-70 & 71 also seem to be popular radios but I've never tested one. Also, you should get an isolation transformer [rated at least 25% more current capacity than the radio uses], LF antenna or, if you use a wire antenna, get a variometer or antenna tuner & a good ground such as an iron well casing, if possible. Hope this helps.