so i finally did it after putting it off for like 8 months, passed my technician exam yesterday at the library session and got my callsign this morning which honestly i did not expect to happen that fast. anyway i have a baofeng uv-5r that my brother in law gave me and i programmed in the local repeater frequencies from the club website but i just kind of sit there with the radio and dont actually key up because im not sure if im doing it right or if someone will be listening or if my audio is even going to sound okay. i know its dumb but there is something weirdly intimidating about just pressing the button for the first time. did anyone else feel this way or am i just overthinking it

oh man yeah totally felt the same way, i literally sat with my HT for three days before i finally just keyed up on a local net and said my callsign. the thing is nobody is going to judge you, most people on the repeater are just happy to hear a new voice. find out if your local club has a weekly net and just check in, thats probably the easiest first QSO you can make because the net control is literally expecting people to call in. also dont worry too much about the baofeng audio, mine sounded fine on the repeater. just make sure your CTCSS tone is set right or you wont even get into the repeater and then youll wonder why nobody responds lol

everybody feels that way the first time, no big deal. i remember my first transmission was on a 2m repeater back in the 90s and my voice cracked like i was 14 again even though i was 32. just do it. worst case someone asks you to adjust your audio and thats actually helpful not mean. the hardest part is keying up that first time and after that its just normal conversation. welcome to the hobby