A good ham radio
Personally, any radio with the Yaesu name on it ranks right up there with free $1000 bills. They are built rugged as a tank and they are easy to program and (most of them) will work very well as receivers outside of the ham bands.
What's the best radio to buy? That's like asking what the best car to buy is. It depends upon what you are wanting to do with it.
You can, if you have oodles of money, buy one radio that will do everything in one box. But that will cost you two arms and three legs and will run all kinds of modes and will probably be the last radio that you'd buy for several years. Again, Yaesu makes one of those radios, but that particular radio will REALLY cost you.
Suggest that you look at QST magazine, the magazine published by the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) and examine the many listings of ham rigs for sale by different companies listed in the ads section of the magazine. Then, go to one of the radio stores and ask questions. That's a darned good place to start.
For my own use, however, I have commercial FM radios here. The 2 meter radio is a General Electric Delta with a General Electric S-990 programmable head on it with 128 frequencies in 8 modes (banks) and works pretty darned well. The 440 radio at the house is another GE radio, a Phoenix SX-1. It is a 16 frequency scanning transceiver (as is the Delta). It runs about 40 watts and has a very good receiver in it.
The portable radios here are both Motorola radio: MT-1000 for 2 meters and a HT1000 for 440MHz. Reason? They are rugged and stable radios that are easy to use for public event service and handy to use when I go out on walks with the XYL. And, they are tolerant of rough use.
But, those are my own preferences, which I came to after getting rid of the amateur radio equipment (Yaesu and Kenwood stuff) and looking around for other things that worked as well --- or better. I am also a fan of military surplus stuff, too --- same reason.
Then again, I have only been in this hobby for 43 years, so I have seen a lot of changes in the radio field along the way. I was first licensed in 1964 with the call sign of WN8LGM and all I could operate on was CW and I did it on the old novice band on 40 meters. Then I caught the VHF FM bug and haven't been cured for almost 11 years.
Nevertheless, lots of good luck to you in the future with this Ham Radio thing. Enjoy.
CU on the air! --*** ***-- ***-*- *-*-*