so i passed my technician exam last thursday after studying for about 3 weeks and i was honestly pretty nervous to actually key up for the first time. been listening on the local repeater for like a month just getting a feel for how people talk and the timing and all that. finally just did it yesterday morning, said my callsign and that i was a new op looking to make a contact and this older guy came back to me right away which was great. we talked for maybe 10 minutes about where i live and what got me into radio, he was really patient with me when i fumbled around trying to remember the proper way to sign off. anyway just wanted to say hi here too since ive been lurking on this forum for a while reading about equipment and stuff. running a baofeng uv-5r for now which i know everyone has opinions about but it got me on the air so whatever

congrats on the ticket and the first QSO, that first contact is always a bit nerve wracking no matter how much you prepare. dont worry too much about the baofeng stuff, yeah they have their issues but plenty of people started on one and it does what you need for 2m FM. once you get comfortable on the repeater you might want to look at getting on HF, thats where things really open up. your tech license gets you some HF privileges on 10m and a few other bands so theres no reason to wait on upgrading if you want to explore more. welcome to the hobby

haha i did the exact same thing with the lurking on the repeater before actually transmitting, sat there for weeks just listening. my first contact i forgot to give my callsign at the end and the other guy had to remind me, was pretty embarasing. gets easier fast though