ok so ive been licensed for about 4 months now and i finally got brave enough to check into a local 2m net last tuesday. the net control called for check-ins and i just said my callsign and my name like i heard others do and i thought that went fine. but then afterward one of the guys came back to me on simplex and said i should have waited for a pause before transmitting and that i was "doubling" with someone else. i honestly didnt even hear anyone else transmitting at the same time so i dont know if that was my radio or what.

anyway now im second guessing everything. like when do you actually transmit during a net? do you just jump in when it sounds clear or is there some kind of order to it? and what about directed nets vs round table ones, is the procedure different? i checked a couple youtube videos but they kind of contradicted each other which didnt help. just want to make sure im not being that annoying new guy who steps on everyone

don't sweat it too much, doubling happens to everyone and honestly it happens to experienced operators too especially on busy repeaters. what probably happened is you and another person both heard the same pause and keyed up at the same time — your radio would just pick up the stronger signal so you may not have heard the other person at all. net control usually handles that gracefully and asks for any stations they may have missed.

for directed nets, the idea is you only transmit when net control specifically asks for check-ins or calls on you. so you wait for them to say something like "any further check-ins" and then you give your call. on a round table or informal ragchew net it's way more relaxed and people just take turns talking. the key thing i always tell new folks is just listen a lot before you jump in. even 10-15 minutes of just monitoring a net before you ever check in will tell you more than any youtube video. you're doing fine, the fact that you're even thinking about this stuff means you're not gonna be that guy.

yeah i was in the same boat when i first started checking into nets, felt like everyone else knew some secret rulebook lol. one thing that helped me was actually downloading the net's preamble script — a lot of clubs post them on their website and you can see exactly what net control is going to say and when they expect responses. also if you're on a repeater with a bit of a tail or courtesy tone, that's usually your cue that someone finished transmitting and it's ok to key up. takes a while to get the feel for it but you'll get there pretty quick