so i just passed my technician exam last week and im trying to figure out what handheld to get and honestly the sheer number of options is kind of paralyzing me. ive been reading threads on here for a few weeks and everyone seems to have really strong opinions about everything

right now im looking at the baofeng UV-5R because its cheap and seems like everyone has one, but then i keep seeing people say to just spend a little more and get something better. the yaesu FT-60R keeps coming up but thats like 3x the price for someone just starting out. and then theres the whole chirp programming thing which i havent even gotten into yet

mostly i want to hit the local repeaters, maybe do some simplex with a friend who lives about 8 miles away, and eventually get into APRS if thats even possible on a basic HT. am i overthinking this or is there actually a meaningful difference between the cheap stuff and the mid range radios for what im trying to do

welcome to the hobby, dont stress too much about the first radio honestly. the baofeng will absolutely work for hitting local repeaters and you'll learn a lot just fumbling around with it. the interface is a bit clunky and the manual reads like it was translated by someone who had never seen a radio before, but CHIRP makes programming it way easier once you get that set up

that said if you can swing the FT-60R i do think its a noticably better radio, better receiver, built tougher, audio is clearer on both TX and RX. ive had mine for like 6 years and dropped it more times than i care to admit. the baofeng i had before that lasted about 18 months before something went weird with the squelch and i never bothered fixing it

for APRS on a basic HT you'd need a separate TNC or use your phone with an app like APRSdroid over bluetooth, the FT-60R doesnt do APRS natively either. if you know youre definitely gonna want APRS built in you might look at the yaesu FT3DR or one of the kenwood TH-D series but those are a bigger jump in price

i was in the exact same spot about a year ago and just went with the UV-5R to start. zero regrets for learning on it. honestly half the fun was figuring out why it wasnt working and then figuring out it was just a PL tone thing lol. once i understood the repeater stuff better i picked up a used FT-70DR for like 65 bucks and that became my main HT