so i just passed my technician exam last week and im trying to figure out what handheld to get. ive been reading a lot and honestly its more confusing than the actual test was. everyone seems to have a different opinion and some people swear by the cheap baofengs and others act like youre committing a crime if you buy one.

my main use would probably be local repeaters and maybe some simplex during hikes or whatever. i dont really have a huge budget, maybe 100-150 bucks to start. i looked at the yaesu ft-60 and people seem to like it but its a little older i think? also saw the btech uv-5x3 which does 1.25m which sounds cool but i dont even know if theres any activity on that band around here.

does anyone have suggestions or should i just get whatever and upgrade later, i feel like im overthinking this

congrats on the ticket first of all. honestly you are overthinking it a little but thats completely normal when youre just starting out. the ft-60 is a solid choice and yeah its older but thats kind of the point — yaesu has been making that radio for a long time because it just works. the receiver is noticeably better than the baofengs in my experience, especially if you have any strong signals near your local repeater frequencies that might cause desensitization issues.

that said if youre on a tight budget theres nothing wrong with starting on a baofeng uv-5r just to get on the air and learn how things work. ive seen plenty of elmers recommend that route, just get chirp and program it properly. the 1.25m thing on the btech is neat but unless you know theres traffic on 220 in your area its probably not going to see much use, id check repeaterbook first before that factors into your decision at all.

if i were doing it over i probably would have spent the extra money upfront for something like the ft-60 or even the wouxun kg-uv9d but thats easy to say in hindsight. either way just get something and get on the air, thats the actual goal here

i was in basically the same spot about 8 months ago and ended up going with the baofeng uv-5r just because of the price. its been fine for hitting local repeaters but i did notice it has trouble sometimes when im near a commercial transmitter site, gets kinda noisy. my buddy has a yaesu and it handles that way better. so if youre near any big antenna farms maybe worth spending more. but for hiking and casual stuff the cheap one gets the job done for me so far