I just did the online practice tests until I couldn't see straight, passed my General pretty easy that way. I have an IC-706mkii, MFJ Versatuner, and a big horizontal loop fed with ladder line for HF, and a J pole built outta junk for 2M. With the loop and 100 watts I can talk to most of the lower 48 on 20/40/80M pretty easy. I have lots of repeaters within 70 mi or so up on 10,000 ft mountains, I can kerchunk all of them with a few watts and that junk J pole.
Baofengs are ok and mine (UV-5R) performs on 70cm/GMRS good, 2M performance is poor though. I have an old Rat Shack HTX-202 I fixed up that does a lot better on 2M.