ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (general class) and i keep hearing people talk about nets and how great they are for getting on the air and actually talking to people. found a couple schedules on a local club website but honestly i dont really know what to do when the net control calls for check-ins. like do i just say my callsign? do i say my name and location too? is there some kind of format i should know about before i just jump in and embarrass myself lol

also seen some stuff about special event stations like the 13 colonies thing in july and wonder if those count as nets or if thats totally different. anyway any help appreciated, dont want to sound like a complete idiot on my first time

Honestly the best thing I ever did was just listen to a net a few times before checking in. Most of them the net control will say something like "QNI now" or "check-ins please" and you just wait for a pause and give your callsign phonetically. Some nets want name and location, some just want the call, kind of depends on the net. The net control will usually ask for whatever info they need if you leave something out, nobody's going to yell at you.

The 13 colonies thing is a special event, different animal from a net really — those are more about making contacts and collecting confirmations from all the colony stations, W1A through whatever. Still a ton of fun though and a good excuse to get on HF. If you want something more structured to practice with, find a local 2m net first, way less pressure than HF and the net controls on those tend to be patient with new folks. You'll get the hang of it fast, first check-in is always the weird one.

yeah same boat as you like 8 months ago and i was terrified to check in the first time. ended up just saying my callsign and the net control came back to me and asked for my name and qth and i gave it and that was literally it. whole thing took maybe 45 seconds and then i just listened the rest of the time. wasnt bad at all. just do it, worst case you step on someone or mess up the phonetics and honestly nobody cares