ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (Tech) and ive been trying to get on the local 2m repeater. i programmed the offset and everything but nobody ever seems to hear me. finally figured out there was a CTCSS tone required which i didnt know about at first, found it listed on the repeaterbook page as 100.0 Hz. programmed that in and now the repeater opens up when i key up but im still not sure im doing it right.

like when i transmit the squelch tail is there but nobody responds. is that normal? do people just not monitor it that much or am i supposed to say something specific when i first get on? i dont really know the etiquette for breaking into a repeater. back when i was studying for the exam it kind of glossed over the actual practical stuff of how you join a conversation or announce yourself.

also theres another repeater nearby that shows a different tone, 127.3, and when i tried that one it just squelched open and stayed open and made a weird noise. not sure what that was about. any help appreciated

hey welcome to the hobby, the CTCSS stuff trips up a lot of new hams. so basically the tone you program into your radio is what the repeater uses to filter out noise and interference — without it the repeater might not open at all, or in some cases it opens but doesnt retransmit you. sounds like you got that sorted out.

as for nobody responding, yeah honestly most repeaters are pretty quiet during the day unless there's a net or something going on. the way to get on is just key up and say your callsign and say you're monitoring or just say "[callsign] listening" and see if anyone comes back. dont be shy about it. some guys hang out on repeaters for hours and will absolutely respond if they hear someone new. morning and evening drive times tend to be busier too if people commute.

the weird noise on the other repeater — could be a few things. maybe it's linked to another system and you were hearing audio from somewhere else, or maybe the tone you have is slightly off and the repeater is doing something funky. id double check the tone listing and make sure its set to encode only (not encode and decode) unless you want your radio to squelch on that tone too.

that weird noise could have been DTMF or maybe it was linked to an Echolink or IRLP node and you were catching the tail end of someone's audio from another city. happened to me when I first started and I had no idea what I was hearing lol. some of the linked systems sound really strange if you dont know what youre listening for.