so i finally worked up the nerve to check into the local 2m net last night and i think i made a mess of it. i keyed up when someone was still finishing their transmission i think because i couldnt quite tell if they were done, and then when i gave my callsign i said it wrong order somehow and the net control had to ask me to repeat. just felt really dumb about the whole thing.

been licensed about 3 months and ive been listening to the net for like 6 weeks before trying to actually check in, so its not like i jumped in blind. but listening and actually doing it are pretty different things apparently. is there like a standard way you're supposed to time your transmissions so you dont step on people? i know about the pause before keying but how long is long enough

oh man don't feel bad about that at all, literally everyone does this when they first start checking into nets. i stepped on our club's net control like three times my first few months and she was very gracious about it but i still think about it sometimes lol. the timing thing is just something you develop a feel for over time, there's no magic number of seconds.

what i do now is wait until i hear the tail of their transmission drop, then count to maybe two beats in my head before keying. some repeaters have a courtesy beep that tells you the squelch closed, so listen for that if yours has one. that beep is basically the system saying ok someone else can talk now. also don't worry too much about the callsign order thing, net control hears all kinds of stuff and it really isnt a big deal to them. just keep checking in, it gets natural really fast.

yeah the courtesy tone is your friend on repeaters. once you hear that little beep after someone unkeys you're good to go. and hey, net control has heard way worse trust me. the fact that you listened for six weeks before jumping in puts you ahead of most people honestly.