I have been a ham for about 30 years (gulp!).  In that time I have owned at least three dual band VHF/UHF radios.  I have used 2 meters almost daily for local contacts.  I have used 440 MHz a total of less than five times. 

Here's my question to you...how many of you actively use 440?  I suspect that most of you use 2 meters for your field work for local contacts, repeater activity, APRS, etc.  What are you really using 440 for, if at all?

Being an old fart, I've reached the point in my life where if I have am not using something, I usually get rid of it.  This goes for ham stuff too.  My suggestion to all new hams is not to waste you money on a frequency set unless you have a committed group of like minded people that you will be contacting frequently on that band. 

What to the rest of you think? 

(For the record, my primary interest in ham radio is HF dxing. )

I will not give up the 70CM (440) band primarily for FRS/GMRS monitoring, cross band repeating, and for me SAR activities.  I do admit that my use of 70CM is mostly used for SAR and even then only about 20%.  80 percent of my use is 2M. 

For new radio owners, getting 2M is the priority and getting 70CM is more if they want to grow with the radio.