so ive been licensed for about three weeks now (tech class) and everyone keeps telling me to just get a baofeng to start and thats fine but then i went down a rabbit hole and now im looking at the yaesu ft-60 and the kenwood th-d74 and honestly i dont even know what half the features mean anymore

like what is APRS and do i actually need it as a beginner? and dual band vs tribander, does that even matter if youre mostly just gonna be hitting local repeaters? i live in a mid sized city so i dont think range is gonna be a huge issue but i dont know

my budget is probably around 150 bucks maybe a bit more if something is really worth it. just want something that wont frustrate me to death trying to program it and that will actually work reliably. the kenwood is obviously way out of my price range just been reading about it

honest opinion? the ft-60 is a really solid choice for where you are right now. its a tank, the receiver is way better than the baofengs, and the menu system while not exactly intuitive isnt as maddening as some of the cheaper chinese radios. ive had mine for like 8 years and it just works.

APRS is neat but you really dont need it starting out, its basically a system where your radio can beacon your GPS position and send little text messages over the air, some handhelds have it built in some dont. worth learning about eventually but not a day one thing. for hitting repeaters around town, dual band VHF/UHF is all you need. tribanders that also do 220 MHz are cool but the repeaters on that band are getting pretty thin in most areas honestly.

if the ft-60 is at the top of your budget look at the yaesu ft-4xr too, its cheaper and stripped down but people seem to like it fine for basic stuff

I was in the exact same spot about a year ago and ended up going with the baofeng UV-5R just because it was cheap enough that I didnt feel bad if I messed something up learning. Programmed it with CHIRP software which made the whole thing way less painful than doing it by hand through the menus.

I will say though after a few months I did upgrade to something better because the receive on the baofeng felt kinda muddy compared to radios my elmer let me try. So if you can stretch to the ft-60 range from the start you might save yourself buying twice like I did. Either way you're gonna have fun, local repeaters are a great way to just get comfortable making contacts