ok so i just got my technician license like three weeks ago and ive been trying to use the 147.315 repeater in my area. i programmed my baofeng with the offset and everything and i can hear people talking just fine but when i key up nobody responds and i cant tell if im actually hitting the machine or not.

my buddy told me i need a CTCSS tone but i dont really understand why — like isnt the repeater just... open? i looked it up and found a list that says the tone is 100.0 Hz but i dont know if i have it set right because the radio has like a transmit tone AND a receive tone and i dont know which one actually matters for accessing the repeater.

also is there a way to know if im hitting it without waiting for someone to respond? feels like im just shouting into the void right now lol

yeah the CTCSS thing trips up a lot of new folks, dont worry about it. so basically the repeater has a little squelch system that ignores any signal that doesnt carry the right tone — it's there to filter out interference and accidental kerchunkers. you only need to worry about the transmit tone on your radio, that's the one you're sending TO the repeater. the receive tone setting is for your radio to squelch itself based on what comes back, most people just leave that one off or set to 0.

as for knowing if youre hitting it — key up and just say your callsign and say 'testing' then let go. if the repeater is picking you up youll usually hear a courtesy beep or a tail after you unkey before it drops. some repeaters have a roger beep too. if you hear nothing at all after you transmit then either youre not getting in or the machine is down. also double check your offset direction, that catches people off guard too sometimes. good luck

oh man i was in literally the exact same spot like six months ago with my first HT. one thing that helped me was just going to a local club meeting and asking someone there — they basically programmed the whole thing for me in like two minutes and explained what each setting was doing. way faster than trying to decode the baofeng menu system on your own which is honestly kind of a nightmare.

the tone thing is kind of weird to wrap your head around at first but once you get it it makes total sense. and yeah just kerchunking the repeater (keying up super quick without saying anything) can tell you if you're getting in but i've heard some people say its kind of bad form to do it too much, like more than once or twice. better to just say your call and say testing like the other guy said.