okay so i passed my tech exam back in april and have just been lurking and reading ever since, borrowing a friends old baofeng at club meetings which honestly has been fine but i want my own radio now. problem is every time i go down a rabbit hole online i end up more confused than when i started.

like i thought i had settled on a yaesu ft-65 because someone at the club recommended it and the price seemed reasonable, but then someone else said i should just get a baofeng uv-5r to start and save money, and then a third person said spend a little more and get something with a better receiver like the alinco dj-vx50 or whatever its called. and now ive been reading about the kenwood th-d75a which is way out of my budget but sounds incredible.

mostly i just want something for local repeaters and maybe some simplex stuff at events. i do want dual band at minimum. dont really need aprs right now but maybe someday? not sure if i should future-proof or just get something cheap and upgrade later. what would you guys actually do if you were starting over

honestly the ft-65 recommendation your club friend gave you is solid advice and i'd probably stop second guessing it. yaesu build quality is noticeably better than the baofengs and the receiver is way more selective which matters more than people think when you're near a city with lots of rf floating around. ive seen new hams get frustrated with cheap radios because they get desensed by pager towers and stuff and think something is wrong with the repeater.

the aprs thing — dont worry about it for now. most people who buy aprs capable HTs use that feature maybe twice and forget about it. get on the air first and figure out what you actually want to do and then upgrade with some experience behind you. the ft-65 will do everything you described just fine and you wont feel like you wasted money on it when you eventually move up.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, got my ticket in february. ended up going with the ft-65r and no regrets so far. the only thing i'll say is chirp support was a little fiddly to get working on my laptop but once i got the repeaters programmed in it's been really smooth. battery life seems good too, took it to a full day hamfest and it still had juice at the end.

the kenwood th-d75a is drool worthy but yeah it's like 600 bucks so unless money isnt a thing that's kind of a whole different conversation lol