so ive been lurking on this forum for like 6 months trying to figure out if ham radio was worth getting into and i finally just went and took the technician exam last saturday and passed. still cant believe it honestly. been a scanner guy for years so i already knew a lot of the lingo but the actual exam questions were a bit different than i expected, some of the electrical theory stuff had me guessing

anyway got my callsign assigned tuesday and made my first actual QSO yesterday on the local 2m repeater. just said hello and gave my callsign a few times and one of the guys came back to me, we talked for maybe 10 minutes about nothing in particular. felt kind of surreal. hes been licensed since like 1987 and was super welcoming about it

just wanted to say hi i guess. planning to get into HF eventually but for now im happy just getting comfortable on VHF. anyone else remember their first QSO?

congrats and welcome. my first QSO was a complete disaster, i forgot to say my callsign at the end and the other op had to ask me twice lol. dont sweat the small stuff youll get the hang of it fast

the jump to HF is worth it when youre ready, nothing quite like working somebody in europe on 20m with a wire antenna you threw up in a tree

Welcome to the hobby. Electrical theory tripped me up on the exam too, I think I guessed on half the Ohm's law stuff and still squeaked through. The repeater crowd in most areas is pretty decent once they get to know you. Stick around on 2m for a bit before you go down the HF rabbit hole, it gets expensive fast down there, just saying from experience.