okay so i just got my technician license about three weeks ago and im still figuring out all this repeater stuff. i programmed in the local 2m repeater from the repeaterbook listing and i can hear people talking on it just fine but when i key up nobody responds and i dont think im actually getting into the repeater.

looked at the listing again and it shows a 100.0 Hz tone for access. i have the CTCSS set on my radio (baofeng uv-5r, i know i know) but im not sure if i have it set to transmit the tone or just decode it or both? the menu system on this thing is honestly confusing as a first radio. also somebody mentioned something about a courtesy tone and i have no idea what that means or if im supposed to wait for it before i talk. any help appreciated, this stuff is way more complicated than i expected from studying the book

so the baofeng menu situation is genuinely confusing, you're not alone there. what you want is to make sure you're setting the T-CTCS (transmit CTCSS) to 100.0 Hz, not the R-CTCS which is just for receive squelch. a lot of people accidentally set the receive one thinking thats all they need. if you set the T-CTCS correctly the radio will encode that tone on your transmissions and the repeater should open up for you.

as for the courtesy tone — thats a little beep or chirp the repeater makes after someone stops transmitting, basically tells you the repeater is done with that transmission and you're clear to key up. its good practice to wait for it before you respond otherwise you might step on the tail end of what the other person was saying. some repeaters have a pretty quick timeout on it, others take a moment. just listen for a second or two after the other person unkeys and you'll hear it. once you get into the repeater try a short call like your callsign and say you're testing, usually someone monitoring will come back and let you know they can hear you.

yeah what he said about T-CTCS is right. i had the exact same problem when i started, sat there wondering why nobody could hear me for like two weeks lol. one other thing — make sure your offset is right too, most 2m repeaters use a 600 kHz offset and if the offset is wrong direction you wont get in even with the right tone. repeaterbook usually shows a + or - next to the frequency for that. welcome to the hobby btw, repeaters are fun once you get it sorted out