so i just passed my technician exam last month and im trying to figure out what handheld to get. ive been reading threads here and on reddit and honestly im more confused now than when i started. everyone seems to have a very strong opinion about baofeng vs something else and i cant tell if the baofeng hate is real or just snobbery lol

my main use case is going to be local repeaters and maybe some simplex with a buddy of mine who just got licensed too. we're both kind of just getting our feet wet. i dont really need anything crazy. budget is probably around $100-150 but i could stretch it a bit if something is genuinely worth it

also is dual band like a must have thing or is that just nice to have? i see it mentioned everywhere but i dont know if i actually need 2m and 70cm or if i should focus on whichever one has more local repeater activity. anyway any thoughts appreciated, trying not to overthink this

Welcome to the hobby, congrats on the ticket. Okay so the baofeng thing - honestly a UV-5R or one of the UV-82 variants will absolutely work for what you're describing and plenty of people run them for years without issues. The complaints are usually about transmit audio quality, spurious emissions on some units, and the programming software being a pain. For just getting on a local repeater and chatting with your buddy, it'll do the job and you can get one for like 25 bucks.

That said if you can stretch toward your upper budget, a Yaesu FT-65 or a Radioddity or even a used Yaesu FT-60 would give you noticeably better receive and the audio is a lot clearer both ways. The FT-60 is kind of legendary for being basically indestructible. I dropped mine off a ladder once and it just kept going. On the dual band question - yeah get dual band, pretty much all the entry level stuff is dual band anyway and 70cm repeaters are super common depending on where you live so you'd be cutting yourself off for no reason. Most of my local activity is 2m but theres a few really active 440 machines too so im glad i have both.

i was in the exact same spot about a year ago and went with a baofeng uv-5r to start just to have something while i figured things out. it worked fine for like 6 months then i upgraded to a yaesu ft-70dr mostly because i wanted the fusion digital capability even tho i barely use that part of it. the ft-70 feels way more solid in the hand and the battery lasts forever compared to the baofeng. if i had to do it again id probably just skip the baofeng and save up a little longer for something like that. but thats just me, the baofeng wasnt bad it just felt kinda cheap