ok so I passed my tech exam about two months ago and finally got a decent HT, a Baofeng UV-5R which I know everyone has opinions about but it was cheap and im still learning. anyway I can hear people talking on what I think is the local 2m repeater just fine, 146.940 with a 100hz PL tone according to the club website. but when I try to transmit nobody seems to hear me or respond.

I thought maybe I had the CTCSS set wrong so I checked like four times and it looks right. the repeater does have a courtesy beep after people finish talking so I know its actually there and active. I tried timing my transmission right after the beep like ive seen mentioned online but still nothing. could it be my antenna or output power maybe? I'm set to high power which I think is 8 watts. live about 6 miles from where I think the repeater is located based on the club page. just feeling a bit lost and dont want to embarrass myself more than I already have lol

Don't feel bad, this trips up a lot of new hams. First thing I'd double check is whether the repeater requires a tone to access it or if it's carrier squelch open — some clubs list the tone as what you'll hear on the output but don't actually require it for access. That said 100hz is 100.0 Hz PL which on the Baofeng is sometimes labeled differently in the menu so worth going through that again carefully.

Also and this is something people forget — make sure your radio is actually transmitting. On the UV-5R the LED should go red when you key up. If you can get a friend or family member to listen on a scanner or another radio nearby while you transmit you'll know real quick if RF is actually coming out. Six miles is nothing for a 2m repeater with a decent antenna on a hilltop so range probably isnt your issue. Just take it slow and don't give up, we've all been there fumbling with a new radio trying to figure out why nothing works.

yeah this happened to me too when i first started, mine turned out I had the offset set wrong so i was transmitting on the output frequency instead of the input. easy mistake. on the baofeng you gotta make sure the repeater shift is set correct, for 146.940 that should be a minus 600khz offset so your radio transmits on 146.340. if youre transmitting on 146.940 itself the repeater wont pick you up at all and you'd just be talking into the void basically. check that first before anything else