so ive been licensed for about three months now and i kept putting off actually getting on a net because honestly it felt intimidating, like everyone would know i was new and i'd fumble the whole thing. anyway my elmer finally just told me to stop overthinking it and just do it so last tuesday i checked into the local 2m weekly net and it actually went fine. the net control was super patient, i gave my callsign and signal report and that was basically it for my first time.

the thing is now im kind of hooked? i looked up a bunch of other nets running on HF and theres a lot more going on than i expected. found a schedule on a few different sites but they dont always match and some of the listed nets seem to be dead or on hiatus or something. anyone know a good place to find reliable net schedules? also curious if any of you run the same nets regularly, like is there value in checking into the same one every week versus jumping around

congrats on that first check-in, the first one is always the hardest and after that it just becomes normal. for finding nets the ARRL has a net directory but honestly i've found it can be a bit out of date, some of those nets have been dormant for years. what works better for me is just asking around on whatever local repeater you use, people there will know whats actually active in your area versus whats just listed on paper.

as for your question about sticking to one net vs jumping around — i do both depending on the week. there's a wednesday night traffic net i've been checking into for probably four years now and you really do get to know the regulars, net control knows your voice before you even finish your callsign. but i also like catching special event stations when they come up, totally different vibe, more chaotic but fun. there's usually a bunch around holidays and big anniversaries and sometimes you get a certificate or a QSL card out of it which is a nice bonus.

i was exactly the same way when i started lol, sat by the radio for like two weeks before i actually keyed up. the nets on 40m are worth exploring if you havent gone there yet, some of them run almost every night and the HF propagation makes it feel like a bigger deal somehow, you're hearing people from a few states away and everyone's just casually chatting or passing traffic like its nothing.

oh and if you ever want to do something fun look for special event stations around holidays or big hamfests, sometimes you get on the air with a station running a special 1x1 callsign and it goes into a logbook for some kind of award. i worked one a while back during a museum ships weekend and the op on the other end was running from an actual navy vessel which was pretty cool