If you're not looking for a transceiver, and want a good scanner I would recommend the Yupiteru MVT7100 - about £210 currently, I believe, but a very good piece of kit.
I've had mine for about 3 yrs - will store 1000 freqs (in 10 banks), has good reception and will fit in a coat pocket, or flight bag.
I learnt an awful lot about RT procedures (including how not to do things
) before I learnt to fly from years of listening in to my local airfields
Ok, anorak off now (but, seriously, my instructor actually asked me once how I knew so many of the standard calls so well, in the early stages of my training, so it must have helped)