ok so i just got my technician license about six weeks ago and ive been checking into the tuesday night net on our local repeater pretty regularly. last night i wasnt sure if i was supposed to wait for the net control to acknowledge me before i gave my full callsign and report or if i should just go ahead and do the whole thing when i first check in. i kind of fumbled through it and said my call twice and then awkwardly waited and i could tell i did something a bit off because there was this pause before net control came back to me.

nobody was rude about it at all but now im sitting here wondering what the actual proper way to do that is. like do you just throw your callsign out there during the check-in window and wait, or do you say your call and then give your name and location all at once? ive heard people do it both ways and i honestly cant tell which is right. also is there a difference between a traffic net and just a regular ragchew-style net in terms of how you check in? i dont want to keep being the guy who slows things down.

dont stress about it at all, everyone fumbles check-ins when they're new and honestly even some folks whove been licensed for years still do it a little differently depending on the net. the general idea for most informal nets is you just give your callsign during the check-in window — just your call — and then wait for net control to come back to you before giving your name, location, whether you have traffic, all that. net control is basically juggling a list so they want to log you first and then bring you back in order.

traffic nets like NTS stuff are a bit more structured and you'd want to say if you have traffic to pass when you check in, something like your call and then "with traffic" so net control knows to work you in the right spot. but for a regular tuesday social net just tossing your callsign out there and waiting is totally fine. the pause you noticed was probably just net control writing you down, not anything you did wrong. stick with it, you'll get the rhythm pretty quick.

yeah what he said. i went through the exact same thing when i first started checking into our wednesday night net. i actually called in my full name and grid square on the first transmission like i was reading from a script and net control kind of chuckled and said "copy just your call next time." wasnt embarassing or anything just one of those things you learn by doing. after a few weeks it just becomes automatic honestly.