so i just passed my technician exam last week and im trying to figure out what handheld to get. ive been going down a rabbit hole reading reviews and watching youtube videos and now im more confused than when i started honestly. everyone seems to have a really strong opinion and half of them contradict each other

the baofeng UV-5R keeps coming up and its like $25 which is obviously appealing but then people say the build quality is bad or that its not type accepted or whatever that means. then theres the yaesu FT-65 and the kenwood TH-D74 but that one is like $500 so probably not where i want to start

i mostly want to hit a few local repeaters, maybe do some simplex with a friend who lives about 8 miles away, and eventually learn more about the hobby in general. not sure if i need dual band right away or if that even matters yet. any thoughts would be appreciated, im just trying to not make a dumb first purchase

congrats on the ticket first of all. okay so the baofeng thing -- look, lots of people use them and they work fine for hitting repeaters and local stuff. the type acceptance thing matters if you transmit on frequencies you shouldnt or in certain situations but for normal amateur use most people dont worry about it too much. that said the programming software can be a real pain and the manual is honestly terrible

if youre serious about the hobby i usually point new folks toward the Yaesu FT-65 or the FT-4XR, both are solid dual band radios around $60-80 range and theyre much easier to program by hand without needing a computer cable every time you want to change something. audio is better too. the build on the yaesu stuff just feels more solid in your hand, hard to explain but you notice it

your simplex 8 mile shot is going to depend way more on terrain and antenna height than which radio you pick though so just keep that in mind. you might want a mag mount for a car at some point if that link matters to you

i was in the exact same spot about two years ago and ended up just grabbing the baofeng to start and honestly dont regret it. learned a lot about programming and radio stuff in general just by messing with it. eventually got a wouxun and the difference in audio quality was pretty noticeable but the baofeng got me going and thats what mattered

dual band is definitely worth having imo, 70cm repeaters are everywhere around here