so I just passed my technician exam last week (finally) and now im trying to figure out what handheld to get. everyone keeps telling me different things. my brother in law says get a baofeng to start out, a guy at the club meeting said dont waste my time with cheap stuff and just get a yaesu or kenwood right away. I honestly dont even know enough to know what questions to ask.

the main things I want to do are hit the local repeaters and maybe do some APRS stuff eventually. budget is probably around 150 bucks maybe a little more if it makes a real difference. does dual band matter that much for a beginner or should I not worry about it yet

congrats on the ticket. okay so the baofeng vs real radio debate never really ends on these forums but heres my take — if you want APRS out of the box without a bunch of extra hardware, that changes things a bit. a basic UV-5R isnt gonna do APRS natively, you'd need to add a TNC or use your phone with an interface cable. if APRS is actually on your list, you might want to look at something like the Yaesu FT3DR or even the older FT2DR which you can sometimes find used for a decent price. built in GPS and the C4FM/FM dual mode stuff is pretty nice.

dual band is honestly worth it even starting out, most repeaters around me are on 2m but theres a handful of 70cm ones that get more traffic for certain nets. having both just means you dont have to think about it.

I was in the exact same spot about 8 months ago and I ended up getting the Yaesu FT-65R, it was like $90 at the time and its been totally solid for hitting repeaters. nothing fancy but it works and the audio is way better than the baofeng my friend has. honestly for just getting on the air and learning the basics I dont think you need to spend $300 right away, you can always upgrade later once you know what you actually want