I am going to start with a Yaesu Ft-60R, listen around a bit and decide what mobile to buy, leaning toward a

Kenwood V71. There are 3 repeaters with in a reasonable distance 2 2m and 1 70cm. The local police, sherriff. fire and EMS I could listen to. What else should I look for to program in?   Jay

Around here the national calling frequency, 146.520, gets a fair amount of traffic.  144.240 USB is also used here, but there may be another sideband frequency in your area.

Well, the FT-60 is wide receive and will do the AM aircraft band.
As for mobile, have you looked at the Yaesu FT-8800?

NOAA weather radio is handy

Simplex frequencies beyond the call frequencies, per the band plan

These places have some good ideas:

radio ref

intercept radio

FRS/GMRS  frequencies

Simplex frequencies. Per the ARRL Band Plan  You have now seen this "Band Plan" mentioned twice. Get familiar with it so you don't interfere with other people trying to enjoy the hobby too. A couple good examples of what not to do would be to operate FM simplex in the SSB portion of the band, or operate FM simplex in the OSCAR sub band..................It is also bad practice to have long rag chews on 146.52 which is the National Simplex CALLING frequency.

Also, if you want stuff to listen to, don't just program in your local repeaters. Do a little research on the internet and program everything within a 20 mile or so radius of where you live. There are lots of websites where you can find this information. You put in your zip code, or a city name, or something with your location and then you can see all the ham radio repeaters within a given radius. Not all the websites have all the current data but they will have most of it and will definitely get you started.

Make a better antenna for it. Try a small ground plane, J-pole etc.. Then, set it to scan and save the hits.

I had a FT-8800 and switched to the V71 and I love the V71 more the 8800.  I feel the V71 is easier to use than the 8800.  I kick myself though for getting a VX-7R over the FT-60 I like that radio more than my VX-7R.

Up here I program most (all known) repeaters between COLA and Charlotte (probable longest day trip for me).  I usually stay on the Club 440 or 2m machine though.  Some evenings, if I'm bored (and alone driving) I'll tune around to see how many nets I can hit while mobile.  The SCHEART link is one you deff want to link to the Statewide system.  Past that, it's WX, FD, etc...

K1IW repeater and broadcast database

Try this link and see if it helps you find some additonal repeaters in your area.