Here's the link:

http://www.icomamerica.com/products/amateur/706mkiig/

This is, IMO, the radio to have now. It works as both a superb mobile and base. You get this, you will be busy for years. Handhelds are a compromise. Unless you run one of the low power portable HF rigs, I don't see much advantage in using a ham band handheld over FRS/GMRS, except your use will be a little more exclusive.

I was a ham a long time ago. I gave it up. I got disgusted with the politics and the hamhogs that thought they were the boss of the realm. Besides, I got my GRT and had a job and a business fixing and operating radio equipment for a living. What I discovered is that, until the govt comes up with a system that allows a person to carry a handheld device that they can use to signal distress and be located by, having remote communications capability is little more than a convenience. Of course, now that we have an EPIRB system on line, I guess that packing a handheld radio, vis a vis a PLB, is actually worthwhile.

If I were going to pack a radio with me for survival purposes other than that, I would take a 4 or 5 watt HF rig tuned to 7.15 Mhz capable of CW and a little pushbutton keyer. String up an antenna, and start keying. They will eventually hear you, and find you. Why they decided they had to go to UHF for EPIRB, I don't understand. We had no trouble targeting low power hf transmitters back in the early 80s when I was in the Navy from 3600 miles or more. We could DF them in less than 5 seconds after acquiring their signal, and fix them within a 2 mile radius with two other DF bearings from other platforms. If you know where to look frequency wise, you could go even quicker. We still have all that gear and technology sitting around, why they had to go to UHF beats me. I guess they had to justify their budget somehow.

Anyways, get the Icom radio, believe me it is a cheap price to pay for all that capability, and enjoy. Maybe someday when I am sitting around and have absolutely nothing to do, I might get back into radio as a hobby.

BTW, if you really want to do the amateur radio thing right, you will try and build your own radio(s) from scratch. That is what the license was all about when it was started. Somehow this became an industry, and it really took a lot of the challenge and satisfaction out of it. Now most hams are just glorified operators, not real technicians. So sad.