Which repeaters should I put into my hand held radio?

I gotcha. No worries.

 

I suspect this was written to assist new hams with finding and using systems that were within H.T coverage, and which ones would suit their needs as well.
Personally, I would look up several, then listen to them for a period of time to get a 'feel' for the types of conversations taking place, and if those types are desired,
then make a call and get involved.

Mic. fright does scare some away from 'blind calls' on repeaters, but if you do nothing, nobody will know you exist. Break the ice, possibly call those you know, or set up a contact list.
Let's be honest, we all have our favorite repeaters to hang out on, it's normal, it's an accepted practice.

New hams need to feel welcome, and they also are the blood of the hobby/service.
My best advice would be to program no more than 16 repeaters, ones you can access easily, and you can hear clearly too.

Trying to access a distant machine with a poor or noisy signal is not a good thing, and if you receive it just as poorly, chances are, it is too far away to use on a regular basis.
The key is to LISTEN first, find out the flow of conversations you hear. It helps if you know one or more that use that machine, as it makes it more enjoyable, and you might
stick around a while and become a regular voice, which means others might be enticed to stay as well, and you have now increased your circle of friends and contacts.

Having a radio capable of a thousand memory channels sounds like a good thing, but it can get overwhelming if you can not break up those channels into zones or banks.
This leads to forgetting where your regular systems are if you program them without thought as to which is primary, secondary and so on.
It gets out of control in no time.

I have my 32 and 48 channel portables, and have kept them because they are far easier to recall which zone/channels I use the most, and without having to search for them, is also a nice touch.
My HT-1250 has a 16 channel capacity, and I have had it since 2007, and it is used almost every day. Same goes for my MTS2000, which I bought in 2000. Why sell it if it does exactly what I need it to do?
After one has been around a while, you might find that all those memory channels aren't really providing a benefit to you, as many settle down on just a few machines for their daily conversations.

My VX-160 UHF is only 16 channels, and it is perfect for daily use, and allows me to program every repeater I use, as well as a few talkaround frequencies for personal use.
Get what works best for your needs, and purpose, not because it holds 10,000 channels and is what somebody else has. Fill your needs, not what you are expected to buy.
Specifications are important, receiver sensitivity, IMD rejection, co-channel interference, voice clarity, and also the ability to work on wide and narrow band channels will also become important in the future.

Harmonic distortion, dynamic range, and battery life/capacity.
NiCD batteries are dinosaurs, and have a short use life, so try staying with NiMH or LiIon batteries for longer service life, and better performance.
If you have the ability to condition your batteries, so much the better!
Radio specificatons on the radio's performance on TX and RX are important. If your receiver is poor, it will make operating a lot less enjoyable.

Crowded antenna sites will help you determine what to choose. My personal experience was a time I bought an Icom mobile, drove to South mountain near Phoenix, and tried to talk direct to a friend
near Mingus Mtn. The radio experienced so much intemod, it was useless. I returned the radio and bough a Yaesu FT-2800, and performed the same experiment, to the same person.
The Yaesu beat the Icom hands down! Not only were we able to hear each other perfectly, I could also hear my friend when he turned down his transmit power to 5 Watts.
This is not a jab at Icom, only personal experience. I had Icom UHF portables that worked great for even satellite contacts. My V8000 was a fail though.
As I stated previously, the best thing to do, is listen first, then decide on which repeaters meet your needs.
I am always happy to assist new hams any way I can.

 

I also agree with your disagree 100%. If you cannot manually program your h.t. maybe you should find one that you can. As stated a computer is not always around and lets say you made a mistake programming by chirp say with a p.l. tone. You are not going to be able to use that repeater. I have also found just because the repeater is listed in a repeater book etc doesn't mean it is still operational. I try to do my research on the repeaters before I start programming. If its a club repeater check and see if the club has a website if so verify the information a repeater directory has. Even in the newest repeater directory if a change was made and not submitted to whoever the information is incorrect. I have found this mainly in P&L tones. I used to believe certain P&L tones were common with a state for instance Michigan 100.0 after not being able to get into a repeater I found that to be untrue.
Personally I put in the local repeaters and some active simplex frequencies. I always monitor the 2 meter calling frequency as I have had some unique qso's with aviation mobile's. That being said know your h.t, Just my 2 cents.
73's
Mike