so ive been lurking on this forum for like 6 months while studying for my technician exam and i passed last tuesday, got my callsign thursday which was way faster than i expected honestly

anyway i was just messing around on 2m with my baofeng plugged into a mag mount on the car and someone came back to me on the local repeater and we actually talked for like 10 minutes. the guy was in ohio which isnt far from me but still it felt kind of surreal that i was just talking to a random stranger through a radio i bought for 30 bucks

idk i just wanted to share that somewhere because my family doesnt really get it. my wife was like "thats nice" and went back to her book lol. anybody remember their first contact? did it feel weird to you too at first

congrats on passing and yeah that feeling is pretty universal i think. my first qso was a complete mess, i forgot to give my callsign like three times and the other guy had to remind me. been licensed since 2019 and i still remember it clearly

the baofeng and mag mount combo is actually a solid way to start, dont let anyone talk you out of it. people love to snob on the UV-5Rs but they work fine for getting your feet wet on local repeaters. once you start wanting to do more youll figure out what you actually need, no rush

welcome to the hobby, also a newer ham here got my ticket about 4 months ago. the first time someone came back to me i legitmately forgot what i was supposed to say next, just total blank. had the whole thing practiced and then nope, nothing. the other op was really patient though which i appreciated