so i just passed my technician exam last week (finally) and now im trying to figure out what handheld to get. ive been lurking here for a while and everyone seems to have strong opinions about this stuff so figured id just ask directly.

my main thing is i want to be able to hit the local repeaters, maybe do some simplex if anyone around here actually does that, and i dunno maybe eventually get into APRS or something. budget is probably around $100-150 but i could stretch it a bit if something is really worth it.

ive been looking at the Baofeng UV-5R because its like $25 and seems like everyone has one, but then i also saw people talking about the Yaesu FT-60 and the Kenwood TH-D75 which is way more expensive. i genuinely cannot tell if the cheap ones are fine for a beginner or if im just going to regret it and have to buy again in 6 months. also does any of this matter if im mostly just going to be listening for a while anyway

congrats on the ticket first of all. okay so the baofeng thing — look, they work, and a lot of people start with them, but the programming can be a real headache and the receiver isnt great so you'll pick up a lot of garbage on busy RF environments. not the end of the world but it can be frustrating when youre just starting out and trying to figure out whats even going on.

if you can stretch to like $80-90 range i'd honestly look at the Yaesu FT-65 or even a used FT-60. the FT-60 is built like a tank, battery life is solid, audio is way clearer, and the receiver actually rejects interference pretty well. ive handed mine to people who had no idea what they were doing and they figured it out without wanting to throw it out a window, which i cannot say for every radio.

the TH-D75 is great but thats like $600+ territory and overkill for where youre at right now. get something reliable in the middle range, actually use it for a year, then you'll know way better what features you actually care about vs what sounds cool in a spec sheet.

i was in basically the exact same spot about a year ago and ended up with the Yaesu FT-4XR which is even cheaper than the FT-65 and honestly has been totally fine for hitting repeaters. the build quality feels decent, nothing fancy but it does what it says. APRS isnt built in but if thats something you want later there are ways to do it with a phone app and a cable.

one thing nobody told me when i started — get CHIRP set up on your computer before you try to manually program anything. manually entering repeater frequencies on these little keypads will make you question your life choices