so ive been checking into the local tuesday night 2m net for about 3 months now and i feel like im doing it wrong half the time. the net control will ask for check-ins and i give my call, but then sometimes people just start talking and chatting and i cant figure out when exactly you're supposed to ID again. like if we get into a long roundtable conversation is every 10 minutes the hard rule or is it more flexible than that?

also kind of related — is there a "right" way to pass traffic back to net control when youre done talking? i just say my call and say back to net control but some guys seem to say a lot more than that and i dont know if im being too short or if thats fine. nobody has said anything to me so maybe its okay but still feels weird not knowing if im doing it correctly.

been loving the hobby so far just want to make sure im not accidentally being rude to anyone on the air without knowing it

The 10 minute ID rule is from Part 97 and yeah it's a real requirement, but in practice on a net most people just ID when they key up or when they finish a transmission anyway, so you end up IDing way more frequently than every 10 minutes without even thinking about it. The rule is really more of a backstop for long transmissions or if someone leaves a carrier open or something like that.

As for passing back to net control, what you're doing sounds totally fine honestly. A lot of guys will say something like "KD9XYZ back to net" or "back to net control" and that's plenty. The longer sign-offs you're hearing are probably just personal style or old habit from HF nets where things are a bit more formal. You're not being rude at all, sounds like you're doing it right.

ha i went through the same exact confusion when i first started checking into nets. what helped me was just listening to a few nets without checking in, just to get a feel for the rythm before i jumped in. the tuesday nets around here can vary a lot depending on who's running net control too — some NCs are super relaxed and some run it pretty tight. if you're ever unsure just follow whatever the NC asks and you'll be fine, they're usually pretty patient with newer folks