Five things are sold as "a radio" and they work under different rules. Pick the sentence that sounds like you; each one names the service, the licence, and the first radio to buy.
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"I want my family to be able to talk when the phones are down"
GMRS. A $35 licence with no exam covers your whole household for ten years. Five-watt handhelds reach across a neighbourhood, a 50-watt mobile reaches across town, and repeaters in most cities reach further. Start with two handhelds and the GMRS guide.
5 W GMRS handheld, repeater capable
Midland GXT67 Pro
Midland GXT67 Pro
Midland's current GMRS handheld: 5 watts, the 22 standard channels plus 8 repeater channels, an IP67 case, NOAA weather alerts and USB-C charging, built to be handed to someone who has never used a radio.
Power
5 W
Channels
22 GMRS/FRS + 8 repeater
Rating
IP67
Charging
USB-C compatible, about 4 h
Weather
NOAA alert
Weight
9.6 oz (listing)
Suits: The family radio: a parent, a teenager, a hunting partner, a hurricane kit.
Weigh: Midland doesn't publish the battery capacity or the certification number on the product page. No Bluetooth or app; programming the repeater tones takes a separate cable or the keypad.
"I want the hobby: repeaters, nets, the exam, the callsign"
Ham radio. A 35-question exam from a published pool, a $35 fee, and a licence for ten years that opens the 2 m and 70 cm bands and everything above. Buy a handheld first and listen while you study; the licence guide has the order that works.
Dual-band handheld from a ham maker
Yaesu FT-65R
Yaesu FT-65R
A plain, tough 5-watt dual-band handheld from one of the three big amateur makers: 1,950 mAh battery, a loud 1 W speaker, IP54 splash rating, weather alert, and a three-year warranty.
Power
5 / 2.5 / 0.5 W
Battery
1,950 mAh SBR-25LI, 3.5 h rapid cradle
Audio
1 W speaker
Rating
IP54; 2.1 × 4.1 × 1.2 in (listing)
Extras
Weather alert, FM broadcast receive
Warranty
3 years
Suits: The first "real" handheld: a beginner who wants a radio built for the ham bands by a company that will still answer the phone in three years.
Weigh: No USB charging, only the cradle; 200 memories; keypad programming is slow, and the SCU-59 programming cable is a separate purchase. Yaesu does not publish the transmit range on its page.
FRS. No licence, 2 watts, a mile or two. Any pair on the personal radio page works; pick by whether they need to get wet.
FRS walkie-talkies, weatherproof
Motorola Talkabout T470 (2-pack)
Motorola Solutions Talkabout T470
A step up in the same aisle: IPX4 weatherproof, 800 mAh NiMH packs or AAs, seven NOAA channels, a flashlight, and a Y-cable that charges both from one USB port.
Service
FRS, no licence
Channels
22; 121 privacy codes
Batteries
800 mAh NiMH or 3 × AA; micro-USB Y-cable
Rating
IPX4 weatherproof
Weather
7 NOAA channels
Weight
6.4 oz (listing)
Suits: Rain, boats, and anyone who wants a pair that charges from a phone brick.
Weigh: Motorola's "35 miles" footnotes to 6 miles on open water and 2 in a neighbourhood. Power output isn't published; the FRS rule caps it at 2 W anyway. Micro-USB, not USB-C.
CB. No licence, 40 channels, 4 watts, and the antenna matters more than the radio. A compact 40-channel unit and a tuned magnet-mount antenna.
40-channel CB, compact
Uniden PRO510XL CB
Uniden PRO510XL
The small CB radio that has been in trucks for decades: 40 channels, a signal meter, and nothing to learn. Needs an antenna and a 12 V connection.
Service
CB (Part 95 subpart D), no licence
Channels
40
Power
CB limit: 4 W AM/FM
Extras
S/RF meter, ANL, PA (listing)
Suits: A truck or a tractor; talking to the road.
Weigh: Uniden publishes almost nothing beyond the channel count. AM only; the 4 W limit is the rule's. A CB is only as good as its antenna, which is a separate purchase and must be tuned.
A NOAA weather alert radio. Receive only, no licence, programmed with your county code so it stays silent until a warning is for you. Ready.gov lists one in the basic kit; it's the radio everyone should own whatever else they buy.
NOAA weather radio with SAME alerts
Midland WR120B weather alert radio
Midland WR120B
The weather radio for the kitchen counter: it sits silent until the National Weather Service issues a warning for your county, then sounds a 90 dB siren and reads the warning. Programs up to 25 counties, runs on AC with three AAs as backup, Public Alert certified.
Alerts
S.A.M.E., up to 25 counties
Siren
90 dB
Power
AC; 3 × AA backup (not included)
Certification
Public Alert
Suits: Every household in tornado or hurricane country. Ready.gov lists one in the basic kit.
Weigh: Midland's page says both "over 60" and "85+" alert types. The AAs are backup only and aren't included. No AM/FM.
An SDR dongle, or a scanner. No licence for either. A USB SDR and open-source software hear everything from the ham bands to aircraft on a laptop; a handheld scanner follows the digital trunked systems police and fire use. Check your county on RadioReference before buying a scanner.
Software-defined radio receiver, USB
RTL-SDR Blog V3 with dipole kit
RTL-SDR Blog V3 + dipole antenna kit
The USB stick that turns a laptop into a receiver from 500 kHz to 1.7 GHz: hear the ham bands, weather, aircraft, and what the scanner crowd hears, with open-source software. This kit adds the maker's dipole antenna set, which is the part the bare dongle lacks.
Range
500 kHz–1.7 GHz (listing)
Bandwidth
3.2 MHz (2.4 MHz stable)
Tuner
R820T2, 1 PPM TCXO
Connector
SMA-female; bias tee
In the box
Dipole antenna kit
Suits: Listening before you can transmit: the week between ordering a radio and passing the exam, and anyone curious what is on the air.
Weigh: Receive only. The newer V4 isn't sold on Amazon under the maker's name (the "V4" listings there are clones); the V3 is the genuine one. HF reception on the V3 uses a direct-sampling mode that is a step down from the V4's.
"A Baofeng that does everything." A cheap dual-band handheld tunes ham, GMRS, FRS, marine and public-safety frequencies, and is legal to transmit on exactly one of those, with a licence. Buy it for ham; buy a GMRS radio for GMRS.
"A ham licence so I can use GMRS." They're separate services with separate licences and separate radios. Pick the one that matches the sentence above.
