so i've been licensed about 8 months now and i'm still trying to figure out the unwritten rules. last week i found what i thought was a clear frequency on 40m and just started calling CQ. got a pretty terse response from someone saying the frequency was in use and i should have checked first. i honestly couldnt hear anything before i started so i wasnt trying to be rude or anything.

i know the official thing is to ask 'is this frequency in use' before you start but does everyone actually do that? feels a little awkward to just announce yourself on what sounds like a dead frequency. also someone in my club mentioned something about nets that i might have walked into but i had no idea there was a net schedule for that part of the band. is there a good place to find those? i dont want to keep stepping on people by accident

yeah this happens to everyone when they're starting out, dont sweat it too much. the 'is this frequency in use' thing is genuinely what most experienced ops do, especially on HF where propagation means you might not hear both sides of a QSO. like someone could be in the middle of a contact with a station that's just not making it to your location, so from your end it sounds totally silent.

as for net schedules, the ARRL has a net directory on their website and there are a few other databases floating around. also worth just sitting on 40m for a while at different times and getting a feel for what normally happens where. 7.200-7.300 is phone and you'll start to recognize the regular nets after a bit. some guys are pretty grumpy about it but honestly most people understand if you just say sorry and move on, nobody expects new hams to know everything day one

the net thing caught me off guard too when i first got on HF. there's nets that have been running on the same frequency same time every week for like 30 years and they kind of consider it theirs even though technically no one owns a frequency. just one of those things you learn over time i guess. I keep a shortwave schedule app on my phone now and cross-reference it when i'm looking for a spot to operate