so i finally got my technician last month and ive been listening to the Tuesday evening net on the local repeater for a few weeks before i got brave enough to check in. checked in last night and the net control guy was super nice, but then afterward one of the other guys on the frequency kept transmitting over people? like he would just key up while someone else was mid-sentence. i didn't say anything but it made me wonder if i misunderstood something about how nets work. is that normal? should i have said something?

also when i checked in i said my callsign and my name and that i was a new ham and the net control asked if i had traffic. i said no because i didnt know what that meant at the time lol. now i know it means like messages to pass or whatever. just feeling my way through this stuff. any tips for net check-ins would be great honestly

welcome to the hobby, first off. what you experienced with that guy transmitting over people is unfortunately pretty common on some repeaters and no, it's not correct procedure. could be a few things — his radio might have a timeout issue where he doesnt realize he's stepping on people, or sometimes folks just have bad habits they've picked up over years and nobody ever said anything. you weren't wrong to feel like something was off, because something was off.

as for the traffic question, yeah that tripped me up too when i was new. most casual nets you just say no traffic and move on. if the net has a formal structure sometimes you hear people say "no traffic, just a signal report" or something like that. the main thing is just listen for a few weeks on whatever net you join, you pick up the rhythm pretty fast. you did fine checking in, the fact that you waited and listened first puts you ahead of a lot of new hams who just jump right in.

yeah the guy keying up over people is just rude honestly, happens on our repeater sometimes too. if its a regular thing you could mention it to whoever runs the repeater, they usually appreciate a heads up. most people dont even realize they're doing it.