ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (tech) and just got my first HT, a Baofeng UV-5R, yeah yeah i know but its what i could afford right now. anyway i programmed in the local 2m repeater from repeaterbook and i can hear people on it just fine but when i transmit nobody responds and i dont think im actually hitting it.

i looked it up and i think the issue might be the CTCSS tone? the repeater listing says it needs a 100.0 Hz tone to access it. i went into the menus and i think i set it but honestly the Baofeng menu system is a nightmare. i set the T-CTCS to 100.0 Hz but left R-CTCS off, is that right? or do i need both on? also whats the difference between T and R anyway, i kind of get the transmit part but why would i need a receive tone.

and also kind of a separate question — whats the proper way to just check in or make sure youre getting out? like do i just say my callsign and wait or is there some specific thing i should say, dont want to be that guy who does something weird on a busy repeater

yeah you basically got it right with the T-CTCS, thats your transmit tone which is what the repeater needs to hear from you before it opens up. the R-CTCS is a receive tone filter — it tells your radio to only unsquelch when it hears that specific tone coming back at you, which most people leave off unless theres interference or something. so your setup sounds correct honestly.

for checking if youre getting into the repeater, easiest thing is to just key up and say your callsign and the word "testing" and then listen for the repeater tail — that little blip or kerchunk sound after you unkey. if you hear that, you made it in. some repeaters have a courtesy tone too, like a beep that tells you the transmission was received. if you dont hear anything at all after keying up, either the tone is off or youre not close enough or something else is going on with the offset.

make sure your offset is set right too by the way, 2m repeaters are usually plus or minus 600 kHz and if its backwards youre transmitting on the output frequency instead of the input and the repeater will just ignore you

I went through exactly this same confusion when I started, took me forever to figure out why I could hear the repeater but couldnt get in. Turned out I had the offset direction wrong, not the tone. Worth double checking both.

As for etiquette, honestly most repeater regulars are pretty welcoming to new people. If it's a quiet moment just throw out your callsign and say you're listening or just testing, nobody's gonna bite. Some clubs even have a weekly net that's great for new hams to check in on since theres usually a net control walking everyone through it. Might be worth looking up if your local club runs one.