ok so i just got my technician license about three weeks ago and ive been trying to get on the local 2m repeater but nobody ever seems to hear me. did some digging and apparently theres a CTCSS tone i need to program in but im not totally sure if i mean the encode side or the decode side or both. my radio is a baofeng uv-5r (yeah i know, i know) and i programmed in what i think is the right offset and the tone listed on the repeater directory page but still nothing. or maybe people are responding and i cant hear them because i also need to set decode? honestly the whole tone squelch thing is kind of confusing me. also i noticed some repeaters say they're linked to other repeaters — does that change anything about how you use them or is it basically the same deal. sorry if this is a dumb question

not a dumb question at all, everyone goes through this. so the short version is — for getting INTO a repeater you need to encode the tone, meaning your radio transmits that subaudible tone along with your voice so the repeater knows to open up. the decode side (sometimes called tone squelch or CTCSS squelch) is optional and just affects what YOU hear coming out of your speaker. a lot of people leave decode off so they can hear everything coming through the repeater. the baofeng menu for this can be a little confusing because it labels things differently depending on the firmware version but look for something that says T-CTCS or T-DCS for the transmit side, that's the one that matters for accessing the repeater.

as for linked systems, functionally you use them the same way — same tone, same offset. just be aware that when a repeater is linked up to a network like EchoLink or IRLP or even just physically linked to another machine, there might be a slight delay before the link actually connects when someone kerchunks it, so its good practice to pause a second after the courtesy tone before you start talking. some linked systems also have their own tones or DTMF commands to connect and disconnect but the trustee or repeater owner usually has that info on their website.

yeah what he said about the encode/decode thing is right. one thing i'd add — when you first start using a repeater it's honestly good just to listen for a few days before you jump on. get a feel for who uses it, what kind of conversations happen, whether there's a regular morning net or whatever. some repeaters are super active and welcoming, others are kind of a quiet club machine that the locals guard pretty closely lol. not saying yours is like that but just... listen first. also if theres a net on dont just start calling CQ in the middle of it, wait for a break and then ask to join or check in. most people are super friendly once you figure out the rhythm of it