so i finally passed my technician exam last tuesday after studying for about three weeks and i was pretty nervous about actually getting on the air for the first time. i bought a baofeng uv-5r just to start out and programmed it with chirp to hit the local repeater which is like 8 miles from my house. anyway yesterday i just kind of worked up the nerve and keyed up during the morning net and the net control actually came back to me and we had a solid 5-10 minute QSO about how i got into the hobby and stuff. it felt way more exciting than i expected honestly, like i knew it was just two guys talking on radios but there was something cool about it. the guy told me to look into getting my general class next which i probably will. just wanted to share because i dont really have anyone in my life who gets why this is cool

congrats man, that first QSO feeling is something else. i remember mine, i fumbled my callsign twice before i got it right lol. the morning net guys are usually pretty welcoming to new hams so you picked a good spot to start. def go for the general, the HF bands open up a whole different world and once you work your first DX station youll be hooked for life

welcome to the hobby. i had a baofeng for about six months before i upgraded, it gets the job done for local stuff. if the repeater has echolink linked to it you can actually work people pretty far out even on that little radio which is kind of fun while youre waiting to get a better HF rig sorted out