ok so i just got my technician license about three weeks ago and ive been trying to get into the local 2m repeater but nobody ever seems to hear me. i can hear other people just fine on the output but when i transmit nobody responds and i dont get any kind of courtesy beep or anything from the machine itself.

my buddy who helped me study for the test mentioned something about CTCSS tones but i honestly glazed over during that part. from what i can piece together its like a sub-audible tone you have to send along with your transmission so the repeater knows youre a legit signal and not just noise? but im not 100% sure if ive even set one up on my radio. its a baofeng uv-5r and ive been poking around in the menu but the options are kind of confusing honestly.

the repeater is listed on repeaterbook with a 100.0hz tone and i think i found something in the menu called T-CTCS but i dont know if thats the right one or if i also need to set the receive side too. also is there some kind of etiquette i should know before i just start transmitting? i dont want to be that guy who keys up at the wrong time or interrupts someones conversation. any help appreciated

yeah you've got the right idea, CTCSS is basically a continuous tone the radio sends underneath your voice and the repeater uses it to open up the squelch on the input side so it knows to retransmit you. without it most repeaters just ignore your signal entirely which is exactly what sounds like is happening to you.

on the uv-5r T-CTCS is indeed the right setting for what you want to transmit, that's the tone you're sending OUT to the repeater. the R-CTCS is for what tone your radio listens for on the receive side — most people leave that off or set it to the tone the repeater sends back so you only hear traffic from that machine and not random simplex stuff bleeding through. you dont strictly have to set the receive tone, it just keeps your squelch cleaner.

as for etiquette — the big ones are just listen before you key up, wait for the courtesy beep before you respond to someone (that little beep means the repeater is ready for the next transmission), and keep your overs reasonably short especially if the repeater is busy. when you first get on just say your callsign and something like "listening" and see if anyone comes back. most repeater groups are pretty welcoming to new folks, dont stress too much about it.

oh man i had the exact same problem when i first got my ticket lol. spent like two days thinking my radio was broken and it was just the tone the whole time. one thing i'll add is that some repeaters also have a timeout timer, so if you key up for too long without releasing it'll cut you off and you might get a different beep or tone from the machine that sounds kind of angry haha. just something to be aware of while youre figuring things out, keep transmissions to maybe 30 seconds or so until you get a feel for the machine.