so i've been licensed about 8 months now, mostly just listening and lurking on local repeaters, but i finally started jumping into some simplex contacts and last week something happened that kind of threw me off and i've been thinking about it since.

i was about 10 minutes into a ragchew with a guy a few counties over and somebody broke in with just their callsign. i wasnt sure what to do — like do i stop mid-sentence and let them in? do i finish my thought first? i ended up sort of stumbling over my words and then gave my call and let the other station in but it felt really awkward and the other guy i was talking to kind of just disappeared after that.

also just generally wondering about when you're SUPPOSED to give your callsign. i know it's every 10 minutes and at the end of a contact but does that 10 minute clock reset every time you transmit or only when you actually give your ID? i've gotten three different answers from three different people on this and im just confused at what point

ah yeah that situation is always a little awkward the first few times, don't stress about it. what you did was basically right — when someone breaks in with their call they're usually either wanting to join in or they have a quick question. standard thing is to acknowledge them, give your own call, and then just ask if they need the frequency or want to join. something like "this is [your call], go ahead [their call]" and see what they want. most of the time it's someone just needing a quick relay or asking if the frequency is in use.

on the ID question — the 10 minutes runs from your last ID, not from each transmission. so if you IDed at the start of the contact, your clock starts there, and you need to ID again before 10 minutes is up regardless of how many times you've keyed up in between. at the END of the contact you always ID no matter what. a lot of guys just get in the habit of tossing their call in naturally every few transmissions so they never have to think about it, honestly that's probably the easiest way to handle it when you're new.

the guy who disappeared probably just had somewhere to be, i wouldnt read too much into that part. happens all the time on simplex, people just drop off.

one thing that helped me when i was new was just listening to a busy net for a while before jumping in. like an actual directed net where there's a net control, because they call on people in order and do all the ID stuff out loud and you start to just absorb how it flows. the ARRL has some stuff written down about ID rules but honestly hearing it in practice is way faster than reading about it