So I just passed my technician exam last week (finally) and now I'm trying to figure out what handheld to actually buy. I've been reading threads on here for like two months and honestly it's made things worse not better because everyone has a different opinion and half the posts are from 2016 so I dont know whats still relevant.

My main use case is just local stuff, maybe hitting a few repeaters in my area, and my buddy mentioned something about APRS which sounds cool but I have no idea if I actually need that or if im getting ahead of myself. Budget is somewhere around $60-150 depending on how convincing you guys are.

I keep seeing the Baofeng UV-5R come up everywhere and it seems like people either love it or think its basically a toy. Then theres the Yaesu FT-60 and the FT-65 and honestly I cant tell the difference between those two. Is the Kenwood TH-D74 something a brand new person should even be looking at or is that overkill for just starting out?

Any thoughts appreciated, just trying to not make a dumb first purchase here.

Congrats on passing the ticket, welcome to the hobby. Okay so here's my honest take — the Baofeng UV-5R is fine for learning the ropes and costs basically nothing, but the programming can be a headache and the receiver isn't great, meaning it'll pick up interference from all kinds of stuff that isn't actually on your repeater's frequency. It works, but you'll probably want something better within a year.

The FT-60 is kind of the classic recommendation for a reason. It's built like a tank, the receiver is actually decent, and it's pretty straightforward to use once you get the hang of the menu system. The FT-65 is the newer version and it's fine but honestly the FT-60 is still what I'd tell someone to get if they can find one at a good price.

For APRS — I'd hold off on worrying about that for now. Get comfortable with just talking on a repeater first, get your programming software set up, all of that. The D74 is amazing but thats like $500+ and you don't need that right now. Baby steps and all that.

im basically in the same boat as you, got my tech about 3 months ago and ended up going with the Yaesu FT-65 after way too much research. its been pretty solid for me, haven't had any issues hitting repeaters in my area. the only thing i'll say is definitely get CHIRP set up on your computer for programming it because doing it manually through the keypad is kind of a nightmare honestly

the APRS thing — my elmer told me the same thing the other guy probably will, just focus on getting on the air first. but if you do wanna go that route eventually the Kenwood TH-D72 is a bit cheaper than the D74 and does APRS too, i've seen them used for pretty reasonable prices