so i passed my technician exam on the 14th and honestly i wasnt sure i was ready but the VE team was really chill about the whole thing. been studying for about 6 weeks using hamstudyorg and a couple youtube videos.

anyway i borrowed my uncles HT just to listen around and i heard someone calling CQ on the local repeater so i just... answered. my heart was going like crazy. the guy was in San Antonio and he gave me a 59 and asked about my setup and i had no idea what half the questions meant lol but he was super patient. we talked for maybe 10 minutes and then he said 73 and i didnt even know what that meant until i looked it up after

i know its not a big deal to most of you but it felt huge to me. thinking about getting my own radio soon, maybe a baofeng to start or maybe ill just save up for something better. not sure yet

congrats man, that first qso feeling is something you never really forget. i still remember mine, it was on 40 meters back in 2009 and i was shaking the whole time trying to remember the phonetic alphabet. welcome to the hobby, its a good one

on the radio question — the baofengs are fine to get started, dont let anyone give you too much grief about them. once you figure out what kind of operating you actually like doing youll have a better idea of what you really want anyway

73 means best regards basically, like a friendly sign-off. youll hear it all the time. also 59 is a signal report, 5 is readability and 9 is signal strength so he was saying he heard you loud and clear which is great for an HT

im also pretty new, got my ticket in march so i know exactly what that first contact feels like haha. if you get on HF at some point try 40m in the evenings theres usually a lot going on