so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (technician) and everyone keeps telling me i should check into a local net to get comfortable on the air but honestly i have no idea what to expect. like i know i tune to the frequency and wait but then what? do i just say my callsign when theres a pause? what if i mess up the phonetics or forget something? the net i found in the repeater directory is on tuesday nights at 7:30 local and the listing just says its a general rag chew net run by the county club. is that different from like a traffic net or an emergency net? ive been lurking on the frequency a few times but i havent had the nerve to actually transmit yet. also does it matter if my signal isnt super strong, i'm running 5 watts into a j-pole in the attic

hey welcome, you're way overthinking this and i mean that in the nicest way possible. a rag chew net is the most casual thing ever, the net control will announce the net, ask for checkins, and you literally just key up and say your callsign. thats it. they'll acknowledge you, maybe ask if you have any traffic or announcements, and most of the time you just say no traffic and thats your whole check-in done. nobody cares if your phonetics are a little rough, every single person on that net was a new ham once and fumbled through it. i've heard net controls gently help people along all the time, it's kind of a tradition at this point. 5 watts into an attic jpole is probably fine for a local repeater net, just try it one tuesday and worst case you dont make it through and you try again next week. the hardest part is that first key-up, after that it gets real easy real fast

i did my first checkin like 6 weeks ago and was so nervous lol but honestly the net control guy was super friendly and kinda walked me through it when i fumbled. traffic nets are a bit more structured if you ever wanna try those, theres a whole formal process for passing messages, but a rag chew net is pretty much just people saying hi and chatting. also keep an eye out for special event stations if you want something fun, there was one last month for a local museum and you could get a certificate for making contact, stuff like that is posted on the arrl website sometimes