so i just passed my technician exam last week and now im trying to figure out what handheld to buy. ive been looking at the baofeng UV-5R because its cheap and everyone seems to have one but then i see people saying get a yaesu or kenwood instead and i dont know who to listen to. my budget is probably around 100-150 dollars maybe a little more if its worth it.

i mostly want to use it for local repeaters and maybe some simplex if any of my friends end up getting licensed. do i really need all the extra features on the more expensive ones or is the cheap baofeng actually fine to start? i live in a suburban area if that matters.

sorry if this is a dumb question, just dont want to waste money on the wrong thing right out of the gate

not a dumb question at all, everyone goes through this exact same thing when they first start. the baofeng will work fine for what you're describing, honestly. lots of people use them for years without any issue on local repeaters. the programing software (chirp) is free and once you get it loaded up with your local repeaters its pretty painless to use day to day.

that said if you have a little more to spend the yaesu FT-60R is kind of the classic recommendation and its built way sturdier. i dropped mine off a roof once and it still works. its not fancy but it just works reliably. around 100-120 used usually. the other one worth looking at in your range is the baofeng UV-5R plus vs the regular one -- dont bother, just get the regular.

for your use case starting out i honestly wouldnt stress too much about the brand. get on the air, find a local club, and by the time you know more about what you actually want you can upgrade if you feel like it.

i was in the same boat about 8 months ago and went with the UV-5R to start. its fine, i use it almost every day on my local 2m repeater. one thing nobody told me though is you really want to get a better antenna for it, the stock rubber duck that comes with it is pretty mediocre. i picked up a nagoya NA-771 for like 12 bucks and it made a noticable difference getting into a repeater that was kind of marginal before.