so ive been studying for like 3 months and passed my technician exam on the 14th and just got my callsign showing up in the FCC database a few days ago. set up my baofeng on the local repeater and just kind of listened for a while because honestly i was terrified to key up lol

anyway yesterday morning i finally did it, some guy named Ron came back to me after i called my callsign and we talked for maybe 10 minutes about where i was located and what radio i was using. he was super patient with me fumbling around with the PTT and forgetting to say my callsign at the end a couple times. i know its not a big deal but it felt like a huge deal to me honestly

anyone else remember their first QSO? did you mess it up as bad as i did

haha yeah i remember mine, i keyed up on the wrong repeater and had no idea why nobody was answering me for like 20 minutes. turned out i had the offset wrong and was just transmitting into the void. when i finally got it sorted out and someone came back to me i completely blanked on my callsign and just said uh, my name is Dave. the guy on the other end was real nice about it though

dont sweat the small stuff, everyone starts somewhere and the guys on the repeaters have seen it all before. Ron probably enjoyed helping you out, a lot of the older elmers really do like welcoming new people in

congrats man, i just got my general like two weeks ago so im not that far ahead of you. the baofeng is fine to start out on just dont let people talk you out of upgrading eventually, made a huge difference when i got a proper mobile rig. welcome to the hobby