so i just passed my technician exam last month and im trying to figure out what handheld to get as my first radio. ive been doing a ton of reading and honestly its just making things worse because now ive got like 8 different tabs open and i cant decide anything

my main use case right now would be hitting the local repeaters, maybe some simplex, and i want to eventually do APRS stuff but thats not urgent. budget is probably around $50-80 to start, i dont want to spend a ton until i know this hobby is going to stick for me which seems reasonable right

ive been looking at the baofeng uv-5r because obviously its cheap, but i keep seeing people say the chirp programming is annoying and also some stuff about it not being type accepted or whatever that means for transmitting. then someone on reddit said to just get a yaesu ft-65 and not bother with cheap stuff but that pushes my budget a bit. idk maybe i should just bite the bullet

what would you guys actually recommend for someone just starting out who mostly wants to listen around and key up on local repeaters when feeling brave enough

honestly the uv-5r concerns are a little overblown for basic repeater use in my opinion. yeah the type acceptance thing is real but for just getting on your local machine and learning the ropes its fine. i started on one and it served me well for almost two years before i upgraded. chirp really isnt that bad once you sit down with it for an hour, theres decent youtube tutorials and the locals on your repeater can probably help you get it programmed at a club meeting

that said if you can stretch to the ft-65 its genuinely a nicer radio, better receive, sturdier feel in hand. the menu system is a lot less cryptic than the baofeng stuff. i have both and theres just no comparison in build quality. but if 80 bucks is tight right now theres no shame in starting with the uv-5r, tons of techs have done exactly that

for APRS down the road you'd want something different anyway so dont worry about that for now, cross that bridge later

im in almost the same boat as you, got my tech in the spring and went back and forth forever. ended up getting the baofeng uv-k5 which is a little newer than the 5r and i think its worth looking at if you havent already, it can do some stuff the older model cant and still falls in your price range. been using it for about three months now with no major complaints, programmed it with chirp and it took maybe an afternoon to figure out

the ft-65 does seem really nice though, a friend in my local club has one and the audio is noticeably clearer. maybe save up a bit more and wait? thats what id probably tell myself honestly