ok so ive been licensed for about 4 months now (technician, just got my general last week actually) and i still get a little confused about when its appropriate to just call CQ on a frequency versus like finding an active net and checking in. like are these totally separate things or is there overlap? i mostly operate HF now since i got my general and ive been listening a lot but havent transmitted much because i dont want to step on someone or do something wrong.

also related question — on 40m in the evenings there always seems to be nets running, like pretty much any frequency i land on has something going on. is it bad form to try to call CQ in between nets or do you just kind of have to find a gap somewhere? i listened to one net last week that seemed to go on for almost 2 hours which, fair enough, but it made me wonder if there's some kind of unwritten schedule people follow. anyway any advice for someone just trying to get their feet wet on HF without being that guy would be appreciated

calling CQ and checking into nets are really pretty different things yeah. when you call CQ you're basically just putting yourself out there and hoping someone wants to ragchew or do a contact, totally freestyle. a net is more structured — there's a net control station running it, people check in, sometimes there's traffic (like formal messages being passed), sometimes its just a social check-in deal. you dont have to do either one, plenty of people just listen for years honestly.

for 40m in the evenings you're right that it gets crowded fast. what i usually do is spend a few minutes on a frequency listening to make sure its actually clear before i transmit anything. the old saying is listen listen listen before you transmit and its genuinely good advice not just something they tell newbies. if you hear nothing for like 2-3 minutes and its a reasonable spot away from known net frequencies then a quick "is this frequency in use" is totally fine and then go for it. dont stress too much about messing up, everyone was new once and most folks on HF are pretty patient as long as you're making an effort.

yeah 40m evenings are basically a net parking lot lol. i ran into the same thing when i upgraded. one thing that helped me was looking up the ARRL net directory — theres a searchable thing on their site where you can see what nets run on what frequencies and when. saves a lot of guessing. also some nets are only like 20-30 mins so if you can figure out when they end you can sometimes snag a frequency right after. congrats on the general btw, HF is way more fun than i expected