okay so i just got my technician license like three weeks ago and ive been trying to get on the local 2m repeater that the club runs. i programmed my baofeng (yeah yeah i know) with the input and output frequencies but whenever i key up nobody seems to hear me or respond. looked it up and i think i need a CTCSS tone but the repeater directory listing just says 100.0 and im not sure if thats the tone i need to transmit, receive, or both.

also i noticed sometimes people just start talking on the repeater without saying anything first, and other times someone says their callsign and then pauses for a second before talking. is there like a right way to do this? i dont want to step on anyone or come across as rude before i even know what im doing. any help appreciated, been lurking here for a while and everyone seems really knowledgeable.

Welcome to the hobby, dont stress too much about the baofeng thing, we all started somewhere. So the 100.0 in the directory is almost certainly the tone you need to transmit to access the repeater — that's called the encode tone. You program that on the transmit side so the repeater's controller knows your signal is intentional and not just noise. Most repeaters dont require you to set a decode tone on your radio (that would filter what you hear) so just set encode to 100.0 and you should be good.

As for etiquette — the pause thing you noticed is people listening to make sure the repeater is clear before they start a full conversation. Good habit. When you first get on, just key up, give your callsign, and say something like "testing" or "is the repeater open" and wait a sec. If someone comes back to you, great. Also kerchunking the repeater (just keying up with no ID) is generally frowned upon even if youre just testing, so always id yourself. You'll get the hang of it fast.

yeah what he said about the tone is right. one thing that tripped me up when i was new is that some repeaters are linked to other repeaters across a wide area, like through EchoLink or IRLP or one of those systems, so sometimes theres a delay before anyone responds or you might hear someone from way far away answer you and its kind of surprising at first. if your local club repeater does that kind of linking they might have info on the club website about when the links are active or if theres certain nets that use it. worth checking out if you havent already.