so ive been using a baofeng uv-5r for about two years now and honestly it served me well as a first radio, got my tech license and used it to check into the local repeater and all that. but lately ive been noticing the audio is kind of muddy and i dropped it once too many times i think because the battery doesnt seat right anymore.

anyway im thinking about upgrading and i dont really know where to start. i keep hearing people talk about the yaesu ft-60 and also the ft-70d but i dont fully understand what the D stands for or if that matters for just hitting local repeaters and maybe doing some simplex on 2m. someone at my club mentioned the kenwood th-d74 but that seems like way overkill for what i do, like that thing has aprs and all this stuff i havent even learned yet.

what would you guys actually buy if you were starting fresh? budget is somewhere around 100-150 bucks but i could stretch it if something is really worth it

the FT-60 is honestly hard to beat for that price range, ive had mine for like 6 years and its been dropped, rained on, and generally abused and it just keeps working. the audio is noticeably better than the baofeng stuff, like night and day on a busy repeater. the menu isnt the friendliest but you figure it out after a week or so.

the D in FT-70D means it does System Fusion which is yaesu's digital voice mode, its fine if your local repeaters support it but if they dont you wont really notice a difference. i wouldnt pay extra for it just for local FM use unless you specifically know theres a fusion repeater near you that you wanna use. for 100-150 the FT-60 is probably the move honestly, build quality is just in a different league than the baofengs

i went through this exact same thing a few months ago lol. ended up getting the ft-65 which is kind of the newer budget yaesu and im pretty happy with it. its not as bombproof as the ft-60 but it was like 20 bucks cheaper when i got it and the waterproofing is actually rated which the ft-60 isnt i think? anyway the recevier sensitivity on any of the yaesu handhelds blows the baofeng out of the water, i can hit a repeater from my car with the stock duck antenna that i couldnt get into at all with the uv-5r