so i just passed my technician exam last week and im trying to figure out what handheld to get. ive been reading threads for like two hours and i keep seeing the same names come up — baofeng, yaesu ft-65, kenwood th-d74 — but the price range is all over the place and i honestly dont know what matters and what doesnt for just getting started.

my main thing right now is i just want to be able to hit the local repeaters and maybe do some simplex with a buddy who lives about 4 miles away. nothing crazy. but i also dont want to buy something cheap and regret it in six months when i actually know what im doing, you know?

is the uv-5r really that bad or do people just hate it for the programming headache? i saw someone say the receive is terrible on it but then another person said theirs has been running for 5 years no problem. really confused on where to land here.

congrats on the ticket first of all. okay so here's my honest take — the baofeng uv-5r isnt terrible for what it is, which is a very cheap radio. the receive is a bit broad so it picks up a lot of noise it probably shouldnt, and yeah the programming without chirp is a genuine pain. but plenty of people run them on local repeaters just fine. if you're mostly budget constrained right now, grab one, download chirp, and get on the air. that's the whole point.

that said if you can stretch to like 80-100 bucks the yaesu ft-65 or the ft-4xr are a noticeable step up in build quality and the audio is just clearer. i handed my ft-65 to a new ham at a club meeting once and she had it programmed and hitting the local 2m repeater in about 20 minutes without much help. cant really say that about the baofeng experience for most people.

the kenwood th-d74 is a totally different animal — aprs, d-star, all band receive — its a great radio but thats not what you need right now. save that rabbit hole for later when you know what you actually want to do with the hobby.

i started with a uv-5r and honestly i dont regret it but i also kind of do? like it got me on the air which was the whole point but i ended up buying a yaesu like 4 months later anyway so in hindsight i probably should have just done that from the start. the 4 mile simplex thing should work fine with either one assuming youve got reasonably clear terrain between you, maybe a small antenna upgrade would help more than the radio brand tbh