Anyone want to talk Baofeng radios?

Amateur here,
First do obtain your Ham radio license for many reasons,one being as you mentioned, legal operation on the ham bands. Right now its tought to take the exam from a VE since the lockdown of gathering, plus ve exams are on hold now.

This radio is not type accepted on MURS, FRS, and the like, because , quite honestly, they emit spurious emissions and are not "clean" transmitters,even on the ham bands.

Now lots of preppers buy these because they are cheap and broad banded, and in a SHTF scenario, there would be no FCC or volunteer hams to oversee what you use, so I suppose its every man or woman for themselves.

Also know that you would be operating "simplex" or point to point. Repeater systems would most likely be off the air.Given its power and the rubber duck antenna, as a handheld maybe a mile or so, if you have an external antenna up in the air , then you can increase the range.

One final, you may listen on the ham bands, but please dont transmit until licensed, ham operators take a dim view of unlicensed operation.

If there is anything else you want to ask , please do so, I will answer or help if I can!

Obtaining either of the first two levels of Ham radio licenses is not very difficult, as all the possible questions on each test are online in formats that make the tests very easy to study for (they are all multiple choice questions). The highest level Ham license is a bit harder because of the subject matter and the fact that there are more questions on the test, but it is still doable. And as was said before, don't transmit on Ham bands that you aren't licensed for. You may listen on any band to your heart's content, however.

Most people can pass the Technician exam with a week worth of studying, significantly less with any electronics/RF background. General is pretty much the same way, it builds on the Tech level stuff.

Extra is a whole different ballgame. Got my Extra ticket the hardest way possible, took me 5 written and 3 code exams, back in '93.

I've got MANY moving boxes full of radios, antennas, coax, meters, repeater parts, etc... been inactive for the last 10 years or so.