>>2530325I am taking my technical HAM license test Saturday
If you have friends and want to communicate with them while in the woods, baofengs are fine. If you are going to just use it for emergency purposes, something like a Garmin Inreach would serve you better.
Handhelds are not going to propagate past the horizon, they are VHF and UHF only. If you want better performance, replace the stock antenna. Also, privacy tones are not private, everyone can hear you if they tune into your frequency.
SOTA/POTA looks fun (look it up) and I am considering doing something like that with an ICOM ID-705.
(pic rel, my ham radios)
