ok so i just passed my technician exam last week (finally) and now im trying to figure out what handheld to actually buy. ive been reading threads on here for like two hours and now im more confused than when i started lol

everyone seems to have a strong opinion and they all contradict each other. some people say just get the cheap baofeng and learn on that, others say baofengs are garbage and ill regret it, then someone else says get a yaesu ft-65 and someone else says no get the ft-60 which is older but bombproof... i dont even know what half these features mean yet honestly

main things i want to do starting out are just talk on local repeaters, maybe some simplex with my brother who lives about 8 miles away, and eventually APRS stuff would be cool but thats not urgent. budget is probably $100-150 give or take, could stretch a little if something is really worth it

do i really need dual band right away or is 2m only fine to start? and does the chirp software work with most of these or is that another whole headache to figure out

congrats on the ticket first of all. ok so here's my honest take after going through basically the same thing a few years back -- the baofeng hate is a little overblown but it's not totally wrong either. they work, they just require more patience to program and the audio quality can be a bit rough on some units. if you're comfortable tinkering and don't mind spending an afternoon with chirp figuring things out, a UV-5R or UV-82 will get you on the air for like $25-30 and then you can decide later what you actually want in a radio once you know more about how you operate.

that said if your budget is $100-150 i'd honestly point you at the yaesu FT-65. it's dual band, sturdy, sounds noticeably better on receive than the cheap stuff, and chirp supports it fine. the menus are a little weird at first but you get used to it. the FT-60 is great too but it's single band 2m/70cm meaning it IS dual band but older style -- anyway it's good but harder to find new these days.

for APRS down the road you'd want something like the VX-8DR or one of the Kenwood TH-D series but those are way outside your budget right now so don't worry about it yet. get on the air first and figure out what you actually use before spending more money.

i was in the exact same spot about 8 months ago and ended up with the ft-65 based on advice from my local club and honestly zero regrets. chirp works great with it, took maybe 20 minutes to load all the local repeaters once i figured out the cable situation (get the genuine programming cable, the cheap knockoffs caused me nothing but grief)

the 8 mile simplex thing might be hit or miss depending on terrain, just something to keep in mind. worked fine for me in a fairly flat area but your mileage will literally vary