so i finally got my tech license a few months ago and ive been lurking on the local 2m repeater net pretty much every week just listening and getting a feel for how it works. last night i decided to check in for the first time and i think i maybe messed up but im not totally sure.

when the net control called for check-ins i keyed up and just said my callsign and said i was listening, which seemed fine, but then later when someone was finishing up a comment i kind of jumped in a little too fast i think and maybe stepped on the tail end of their transmission? the net control didnt say anything but i noticed there was like a weird pause after and i felt bad about it.

also i wasnt sure when it was appropriate to just make a comment versus waiting to be recognized by net control. is that something that varies by net or is there a general rule? i really dont want to be that guy who doesnt know what hes doing lol

Hey don't stress too much about it, everybody does that at least once when they're new to nets. The tail-ending thing happens, especially when you're not used to the rhythm of a particular repeater and how much hang time it has. Some repeaters have a long courtesy beep before the squelch tail drops and if you key up before that beep you'll step on whoever just finished. Just give it an extra beat or two after you hear the beep and you'll be fine.

As for the recognized-by-net-control thing, that really does depend on the net. Formal traffic nets run pretty structured where you wait to be called on, but a lot of casual weekly check-in nets are more relaxed and people just jump in conversationally once things get going. Probably worth just listening for a few more sessions and watching how the regulars handle it. Net control will usually set the tone pretty early on. And honestly most net controls are happy to have new checkins, they'd much rather have you making a small mistake than not checking in at all.

yeah same thing happened to me when i first started checking in, i double-keyed someone and wanted to crawl under my desk haha. honestly the regulars on most local nets are pretty forgiving especially if they know youre new. i usually just wait until i hear that roger beep and then count like one mississippi before i key up, works pretty well for me on our local machine anyway