so i just passed my technician last month and im trying to figure out what HT to get. ive been reading threads for like two weeks now and im more confused than when i started honestly. everybody seems to have strong opinions about baofeng vs yaesu vs kenwood and i cant tell whats actually useful advice vs people just defending whatever they already bought.

my main use case is gonna be local repeaters, maybe some simplex with a couple buddies who are also newly licensed, and eventually id like to do some APRS stuff if thats even possible on a handheld. i dont have a huge budget, probably 100-150 bucks to start but could stretch a little if theres something that really makes sense. whats everyone actually running and do you like it

honestly for where youre starting out the Yaesu FT-60R is probably worth the stretch if you can swing it, used to be around $120-130 and its just a rock solid radio. ive had mine for maybe 8 years and dropped it more times than i want to admit. the menu system isnt the most intuitive thing in the world but once you get it set up you kind of dont have to mess with it again.

the baofeng thing -- look theres nothing wrong with a UV-5R as a starter radio and plenty of people use them on repeaters just fine, but the receive on those is pretty wide open and you end up hearing a lot of garbage if youre near any RF noise. for APRS you'd want to look at something like the VX-8DR or the newer FT5D but those are gonna blow your budget pretty good. you could always start with a simpler HT for voice and add APRS later when youre more into it, thats what most people end up doing anyway

im in basically the same boat as you, got my ticket in the spring and ended up going with the Kenwood TH-D74A which was wayyyy over what i planned to spend but i wanted the APRS and D-STAR built in and i just kind of went for it. probably not the smartest move financially lol but i dont regret it. the display is really nice and it actually received a packet from the ISS on my first try which was cool.

if i were doing it more sensibly i'd probably have started with something cheaper for a few months first just to figure out what i actually use vs what i thought i would use