okay so i just passed my technician exam last week (finally) and now im trying to figure out what handheld to actually buy. ive been reading forums and watching youtube for like two weeks and honestly im more confused now than when i started. everyone has a different opinion and half the threads are from 2015 so i dont know whats still relevant.

the baofeng UV-5R keeps coming up and i get that its cheap but people say the transmit quality is bad or it causes interference or something? then theres the yaesu FT-65 which seems more legit but its like three times the price. and then someone in another thread mentioned the radioddity stuff and now i dont know what to think.

im mostly going to use it to check into local nets, maybe do some APRS eventually, and just generally have something to talk on while i figure out the hobby. i dont need anything crazy. budget is probably around $50-80 but i could stretch a little if something is genuinely worth it. any thoughts from people who have actually used this stuff would be really helpful

congrats on passing the tech exam, that's the hard part done. okay so honestly for what you're describing the baofeng criticism is a bit overblown for a beginner. yeah they're not the cleanest radios in the world but for simplex and hitting local repeaters they work fine, ive seen plenty of people run them for years without issues. the main thing is just program it correctly and dont transmit on frequencies you shouldnt be on.

that said if you can stretch your budget even a little the Yaesu FT-65 or the FT-4XR are genuinely nicer to use day to day. the menu system makes more sense, the audio is cleaner, and they feel more solid in the hand. i started on a baofeng and eventually got a yaesu and the difference was noticeable but not like night and day or anything. if $50 is what you have go baofeng and dont feel bad about it. if you have $90 get the yaesu and you probably wont feel the need to upgrade for a while.

for APRS down the road you'd want something with a built in TNC eventually anyway so that's kind of a separate conversation

i was in the same spot about 8 months ago and ended up just getting the UV-5R because i wasnt sure if id even stick with the hobby lol. it works, i've checked into nets with it no problem and nobody has complained about my audio. got chirp set up on my laptop to program it which took an afternoon to figure out but once you get it its easy.

the only thing i'd say is buy a better antenna for it right away, the stock rubber duck is pretty mediocre. i got a nagoya 771 for like $12 and it made a noticeable difference hitting a repeater thats about 18 miles away from me. so factor that into the budget maybe