so i passed my technician exam last tuesday and been spending the whole week just listening on the local repeater trying to get a feel for how people talk. finally keyed up yesterday and said my callsign and a guy came back to me right away, we talked for maybe 10 minutes about his antenna setup and honestly i had no idea what half of it meant but it was still really cool. feels weird hearing your own callsign on the air for the first time, like it doesnt feel real yet.

anyway just wanted to say hi to everyone here, been lurking on this forum for a couple months while studying. glad to finally be on the other side of it.

congrats on passing and making that first contact, the first one is always the weird one haha. dont worry about not understanding the antenna stuff right away, half the hobby is just picking that up over time by listening. you'll start recognizing terms pretty quick. which repeater are you on if you dont mind me asking, im always curious what's active in different areas.

welcome to the hobby. yeah that feeling of hearing your own call come back at you never really goes away, even after years of operating. get yourself on HF as soon as you can though, 2m is great but talking across the country or to another continent on a wire antenna you built yourself is something else entirely.