so i just passed my technician exam last week and im finally looking at getting my first radio. everyone keeps telling me to start with a handheld since its cheaper and easier to figure out but there are just SO many options and i honestly dont know where to start. ive been looking at the baofeng uv-5r because its like 25 bucks and seems popular but then other people are telling me to stay away from it and get something from yaesu or kenwood instead.

my main thing is i just want to be able to hit the local repeaters and maybe do some simplex stuff at events eventually. i dont need anything crazy. but i also dont want to buy something that breaks in a month or is super frustrating to program. whats a reasonable budget for a decent starter HT and is the baofeng hate justified or is it just radio snobs being snobby about it lol

congrats on passing the test, welcome to the hobby. okay so the baofeng thing is a bit of both honestly -- they're not terrible for hitting repeaters but the chirp programming software learning curve can be annoying at first, and some of them are known to spurious transmit outside the ham bands which is a legal thing worth knowing about. not saying dont get one, just know what you're getting into.

my actual recommendation for a first HT if you can stretch to maybe $80-100 range is the yaesu ft-65 or the BF-F8HP if you really do want to stick with baofeng. the yaesu is just more solid, the menu system makes more sense, and the audio is noticeably better on repeaters. i gave my ft-65 to my daughter when she got licensed and it's taken a beating and still works fine. the kenwood TH-D74 and stuff like that is overkill until you know what features you actually care about.

either way just get on your local repeater and start talking to people, that's the whole point right

i was in the exact same spot about a year ago and ended up with the uv-5r first just because of the price and honestly it was fine for learning the basics. programmed it with CHIRP after watching a youtube video and had it talking to the county repeater within like an hour. yeah the build feels a little cheap but mine is still working.

that said i did upgrade to a yaesu ft-70dr a few months later and the difference in audio clarity and how easy it is to just use the thing without digging through menus is really noticable. if i was doing it over id probably just start with the ft-70 and skip the middle step, but i get that not everyone wants to spend that much when theyre not sure if theyll stick with the hobby