so i just passed my technician exam last week (finally) and im now looking at getting my first handheld. everyone keeps saying get the baofeng uv-5r because its cheap and fine for starting out, but then other people say its garbage and i should save up for a yaesu or kenwood. i really dont know who to listen to anymore lol

my main use case is just going to be local repeaters, maybe some simplex with my neighbor who is also newly licensed, and i want to eventually get into APRS but i dont know if i need a special radio for that or if i can add it somehow. budget is probably around $100-150 but i could stretch to like $200 if something is really worth it

also does anyone know if the chirp software thing works with most radios or just some of them? someone at the club meeting mentioned it but didnt really explain it well

congrats on the ticket first of all. okay so here's my honest take - the baofeng argument goes in circles forever and nobody wins. the uv-5r works fine for hitting local repeaters and talking simplex, full stop. the audio isnt great and the front end can get overloaded near strong signals but for what you're describing it'll do the job while you figure out what you actually want to do with the hobby.

that said if you can stretch to $150-ish, the yaesu ft-65 is just a better radio in basically every way that matters day to day. cleaner audio, easier menu system, doesnt require you to fight it to do basic stuff. i gave my nephew a baofeng when he got licensed and he was frustrated within a month, switched him to a ft-65 and he's been happy ever since.

for APRS you'd want something like the yaesu ft3dr or vx-8dr but those are well over $200, probably more like $350-400. most people start with a cheap HT and then add a mobilinkd bluetooth tnc to their phone which handles the APRS side through aprs.fi. works pretty well actually and keeps your costs down while you're still figuring things out

and yes CHIRP works with a huge range of radios, definitely the baofeng and most yaesu handhelds. makes programming repeaters way less painful than fighting the keypad menus

i was in the exact same spot about 8 months ago and ended up going with the uv-5r just because i wasnt sure id stick with the hobby. honestly it served its purpose but the receiver really does get stomped when there's strong signals nearby - i live about 2 miles from a commercial site and sometimes i can barely hear the repeater i'm trying to hit

if i did it again id probably just spend the extra money upfront on something better. chirp is great by the way, took me like 20 minutes to program all my local repeaters once i figured out the cable thing