so ive been licensed about 8 months now (general) and ive been lurking on the local 2m repeater net on Sunday nights but never actually checked in. i guess i was nervous about messing up the format or saying something wrong. last week i finally did it and the net control was super patient with me and honestly it was not a big deal at all.

now im wondering if i should branch out and try some of the HF nets too. i've heard about things like the 75 meter morning nets and some of the ARRL nets but i dont really know where to find schedules or how different they are from a basic repeater net. is there like one place where all the net schedules are listed? also what about special event stations, ive seen people talking about working them but i have no idea how you even find out when they're happening or what frequency they'll be on

congrats on finally checking in, that first time is always the hardest part honestly. once you do it a few times it just becomes second nature. for HF nets the ARRL has a net directory on their website, its not always perfectly up to date but its a decent starting point. the 40 meter nets tend to be a bit more forgiving than 75m in my experience, 75 can get uh... colorful sometimes depending on time of day and who's on.

for special event stations the best thing i've found is just watching the DX bulletins and also the ARRL website has a special event station listing. QRZ will sometimes show them too when you look up the callsign. W1AW operations are probably the most well known but there are tons of smaller ones tied to local history events, national parks activations, that kind of thing. once you work a few you'll start recognizing the pattern of how they operate and it gets easier to find them.

yeah the net directory thing is real, i bookmarked it ages ago. also worth checking if your local club has any affiliated nets cause sometimes those dont show up anywhere official but theyre on the air every week. my club does a Tuesday night tech net thats specifically for newer hams and honestly its pretty low pressure if you want to practice before jumping into bigger stuff

special event stations are a lot of fun to chase, some of them have really nice QSL cards too which got me started collecting them. just dont expect them all to be super organized, some of the smaller ones are clearly just a couple guys with a table at a county fair or whatever and the pileups can be pretty chaotic lol