so i passed my technician exam last thursday and my callsign showed up in the ULS database like two days later which i wasnt expecting to be honest. spent most of the weekend just listening on the local repeater trying to get a feel for how people talk before i jumped in.

finally keyed up saturday afternoon and managed to work a couple guys from my county, nothing fancy just signal reports and names and stuff but it felt pretty cool. one of them gave me a really long winded explanation of his antenna setup which i mostly didnt understand yet but i nodded along lol. anyway just wanted to say hi to the forum, been lurking here for about a month reading threads while i was studying

welcome to the hobby, those first contacts are always a little nerve wracking right? i remember my hands were actually shaking the first time i keyed up on a repeater. gets way easier fast though. if you havent already try to find a local club or just hang out on the repeater during a net, people around here are generally pretty helpful to new hams. also dont worry too much about not understanding the antenna stuff yet, that rabbit hole goes pretty deep and youll pick it up as you go

same thing happened to me a few months ago lol, just got my general last month actually. the first qso is kinda awkward but after like the third or fourth one it just feels normal. what radio did you end up getting?