so i passed my technician exam last thursday and got my callsign in the ULS a couple days later. been sitting on my baofeng for like two weeks waiting for it to show up lol. anyway i finally keyed up on the local 2m repeater this morning and this older guy came back to me right away, we talked for maybe 10 minutes about signal reports and what radio i was using and stuff. honestly my hands were shaking the whole time which i did not expect at all. he gave me a 5 by 9 which i thought was being generous but whatever. just wanted to share because i was so nervous about that first transmission and it turned out totally fine. anyone else remember their first QSO being weirdly nerve-wracking?

congrats on the ticket. yeah the first time i ever keyed up i think i said my callsign wrong and had to correct myself, the guy on the other end was super patient about it though. its one of those things that feels like a huge deal and then two weeks later you cant imagine why you were so stressed. enjoy the honeymoon phase while it lasts, pretty soon youll be arguing about antennas on here like the rest of us

My first QSO was on HF actually, I jumped straight to General after passing Tech like a week later. Got a random station in Florida on 40m and I honestly froze for a second when he came back to me. Ended up fumbling through a signal report and forgot to say 73 at the end. But hey it counted. Baofeng to start is totally fine, just dont let anyone talk you out of getting a real radio eventually when youre ready to do more than local repeaters.