Okay so i passed my technician a couple months ago and ive been listening to the local 2m repeater for a while now trying to figure out how it all works before i jump on. I think i understand the basics — you transmit on one frequency and it comes out on another — but the CTCSS thing is where i get lost.

My radio shows a bunch of tone options and i looked up the repeater on the repeaterbook site and it says 100.0 Hz. So i set that and i can hear people fine, but i kerchunked it once just to see if i was hitting it and somebody came back pretty quick saying who just kerchunked the machine. I felt terrible and just stayed quiet.

So like, what is the actual right way to get on a repeater for the first time? Do i just call CQ or is that weird on a repeater? And does the tone go on transmit only or both? I dont want to make people mad again before i even really get started here.

Oh man dont feel too bad about the kerchunk thing, pretty much everyone does it at least once. The trick is if you want to test if youre hitting a repeater, just say your callsign real quick — like literally just say it once. That way you're being transparent about it and nobody gets annoyed. Some repeaters even have a courtesy tone that beeps back at you so you know you made it.

On the CTCSS question — that tone goes on your transmit side only, you generally dont need to set a receive tone (sometimes called DCS or CTCSS squelch) unless you specifically want to filter out other traffic on your end. The repeater just needs to hear your tone to open up.

As for getting on, just wait for a pause and say your callsign and say youre monitoring or looking to make a contact. On a lot of local machines people are pretty relaxed about it, someone will usually come back to you. CQ is a little unusual on a repeater but its not some huge crime or anything, you'll just get some odd looks... well, odd radio silence haha.

yeah the kerchunk thing is kind of a sore spot on some repeaters, the regulars get a little territorial lol. but honestly just id yourself next time and you'll be fine. i was nervous too when i first got on and the guys on our local machine ended up being super welcoming once i actually said hello. just takes that first transmission to break the ice i think.