okay so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (tech class) and ive been trying to get on the local 2m repeater but i keep hearing people come through fine and when i key up nobody responds or acknowledges me at all. i programmed the offset correctly i think, 600khz down, and the output frequency is right because i can hear everyone. but i saw something on the repeater's website about a 100hz CTCSS tone and i honestly wasnt sure if that meant i needed to transmit it or receive it or both. my radio is a baofeng uv5r and i kind of just set the TDR thing and called it a day which was probably the problem lol.

also separate question - is there like a standard way to join a conversation thats already going on? i dont want to be rude about it but i also dont know the proper way to break in. someone told me you just say your callsign during a pause but that seems too simple, is that actually right?

yeah the CTCSS thing trips up a lot of new folks. so the tone you need to transmit is what lets the repeater open up - without it the repeater just ignores your signal, which explains exactly what youre describing. on the baofeng you want to go into the menu and set the T-CTCS (that's the transmit tone) to 100hz. the R-CTCS is for your radio to filter out signals that dont have the tone, which is optional and most people leave it off for repeater work since you want to hear everyone using it.

and yes on the breaking in question - waiting for a pause and just saying your callsign is literally the correct way to do it. the net control or whoever is talking will usually acknowledge you and give you a chance to jump in. dont overthink it, everyone was new once and most repeater regulars are pretty welcoming.

been there with the baofeng menu confusion, that thing is a maze when you first get it. one thing i'd add is double check the repeater directory or the club's website for the exact tone because ive seen a few repeaters listed wrong in chirp and other places and 100.0 vs 100hz can sometimes be entered differently depending on which version of the software or firmware you have.

the etiquette thing is pretty relaxed on most machines around here honestly. i used to stress about it way more than i needed to. just listen for a natural gap, say your call once, and you're good. the worst that happens is someone doesnt hear you and you try again.