so i just passed my technician exam last week and im trying to figure out what handheld to get as my first radio. ive been reading threads here for a few weeks and honestly im more confused now than when i started because everyone seems to have a different opinion.

my local club mostly does 2m and 70cm stuff, some ARES stuff too from what i can tell. i dont really have a budget set in stone but i was thinking somewhere in the $50-150 range to start since i dont even know if ill stick with it long term (though im pretty excited about it right now). i keep seeing the baofeng UV-5R mentioned everywhere and also the yaesu FT-65 and the wouxun kg-uv9d. one guy at the club said dont bother with the cheap stuff and just get a real radio from the start but he also drives a really nice truck so maybe his idea of cheap is different from mine lol.

is there like a meaningful difference between the $30 baofeng and something in the $100 range for someone just getting started doing local repeater stuff? or am i overthinking this and should just grab whatever and get on the air

honestly for your use case i'd probably say go with the Yaesu FT-65 if you can stretch to it. it's not dramatically more complicated than the baofengs but the receiver is noticeably better and you wont be fighting desensitization issues as much near strong signals. the build feels more solid too, dropped mine a few times and it still works fine.

that said i dont want to pile on the baofengs too hard — i started with a UV-5R back when i first got licensed and it got me on the air and talking to people, which is the whole point. the programming can be a bit of a pain and chirp is basically required, but once its set up it works. the receiver isnt great in busy RF environments but if your area isnt super congested it probably wont matter much.

the wouxun is a step up from baofeng but in that price range i'd lean yaesu personally. or if you want to spend a little more the FT-60 is an older model but its built like a tank and has a really good receiver for the price, you can find them used pretty reasonably. either way just get something and get on the air, you can always upgrade later when you know more about what you actually want.

im in almost the same boat as you, got my ticket like two months ago. ended up getting the baofeng to start and tbh its fine for what i do which is just check into the local net and chat on a couple repeaters. programmed it with chirp which was kinda annoying to figure out but there are youtube videos for literally everything so it wasnt that bad.

only thing is the stock antenna that comes with it is pretty mediocre, someone here told me to get a nagoya NA-771 as a replacement and it made a noticable differnece. so factor that in i guess if you go the cheap radio route.