okay so ive been checking into the local 2m net every tuesday for about a year now and i still feel like im guessing half the time. like last week the net control called for any stations with traffic and i had a quick question i wanted to ask but i wasnt sure if that counted as traffic or if i was supposed to wait for general check-ins. ended up just saying my callsign at the regular check-in time and then felt awkward trying to bring up my question afterward.

also theres this thing where sometimes net control will say QNI and sometimes they say something else i cant quite catch and i just kinda key up and hope for the best. is there like an unwritten rulebook for this stuff that nobody told me about or do most people just figure it out by listening long enough

dont want to step on anyone or come across as rude, everyone on the net seems to know exactly what theyre doing and im still over here second guessing myself every single week

Ha, honestly you're doing better than you think just by being aware of it. Most people who cause problems on nets are the ones who DON'T worry about this stuff at all.

The traffic thing -- yeah that's a bit confusing at first. Formal traffic in the NTS sense means like radiogram messages, so if you just have a question that's not really what net control is asking for there. Most nets have a time for general comments or questions though, usually toward the end or sometimes net control will just open it up after check-ins. If you're not sure, honestly just ask net control directly when you check in, like say your call and add "with a question for the net" or something similar. Any decent NCS will know how to handle that.

The QNI thing -- that's just the Q code for check in, net control is basically saying the net is open for check-ins. You're fine just coming back with your callsign when you hear a pause. Don't overthink it, after another year it'll feel like breathing.

so anyway i went through the exact same thing when i first started and what helped me was just emailing the net manager and asking. felt a little embarrassing but he sent me back this super long friendly reply with basically how their specific net runs and it turned out every net does things slightly different anyway so generic advice only gets you so far. worth a shot if you know who runs yours