ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and just got my first HT, a Baofeng UV-5R which i know everyone has opinions about but its what i could afford. anyway i found a local repeater listed on repeaterbook and it shows a 100hz CTCSS tone. i programmed it in and when i key up i can hear myself come through the repeater but nobody ever responds and i dont know if im actually transmitting with the tone or just hearing the repeater squelch open from RF.

also i read something about DCS vs CTCSS and now im even more confused. is there a way to test if the tone is actually going out? and is there like a standard thing you're supposed to say when you first get on a repeater or do you just start talking? i dont want to be rude or step on anyone but i also dont know the etiquette here. any help appreciated

Hey welcome to the hobby. So the CTCSS thing — on the UV-5R you want to make sure you're setting the T-DCS (transmit tone) not the R-DCS. A lot of people accidentally set the receive tone thinking thats what opens the repeater but it's the transmit side that matters. The repeater has a tone squelch and it needs to hear YOUR tone before it'll open up and retransmit you.

Easiest way to test it is to just key up and say something like "KD9whatever testing" and see if the repeater courtesy tone comes back at you after you unkey. That little beep means the repeater heard you. If you're only hearing yourself it might be you're on the input frequency instead of the output, double check your offset is set correctly for 2 meters which should be plus or minus 600khz.

As for getting on a repeater — most people just say their callsign and say they're monitoring or looking for a contact. You might have to try a few times on a slow repeater before someone comes back. Some repeaters are just quiet most of the time, doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong.

yeah the baofeng programming is a little annoying until you get used to it, i'd honestly just download CHIRP and program it from your computer, way less headache. also 100hz is kind of an unusual tone now that i think about it, most around here use 103.5 or 127.3 but every club does their own thing so could be right.

one thing about repeater etiquette thats worth knowing — if the repeater is linked into a network like Echolink or IRLP or one of the Allstar systems, there might be people from way outside your area listening. not a big deal just something to be aware of. i was on a local machine once not realizing it was linked and ended up in a conversation with a guy in florida which was kinda cool actually.