okay so i finally got my technician license last month and ive been trying to get on the local 2m repeater but nobody ever seems to hear me. i programmed in the frequency and offset no problem but i keep reading about CTCSS tones and im honestly not sure if i have it set right or if thats even the issue.

the repeater directory listing shows 100.0 Hz for the tone but when i look at my radio (its a baofeng uv-5r, i know i know) i cant tell if im transmitting the tone or just monitoring for it. like theres encode and decode and i dont really understand the difference. ive heard people talking on it just fine so i know the repeater is up. i did key up once and say my callsign and got the tail beep thing but then nothing. should i wait longer after the beep before i say anything? or is there some kind of check-in procedure i should be doing first that im missing

hey welcome to the hobby, dont stress too much about this stuff it clicks pretty quick. so the encode/decode thing - for accessing a repeater you want encode turned on, thats what sends the tone out with your voice so the repeater will open up for you. decode is for squelch on your end so your radio only breaks squelch when it hears that tone coming back, kind of optional depending on how busy the frequency is around you.

on a baofeng you want to go into the T-CTCS setting (thats the transmit one) and set that to 100.0 Hz. the R-CTCS is receive side. a lot of people just leave receive tone squelch off unless theres interference they need to filter out.

as for getting on - yeah wait for the tail beep and then a second or two after, then just say something like your callsign and that youre monitoring or just testing. a lot of repeaters are quiet most of the time and theres nothing wrong with just calling CQ or saying youre a new ham and saying hi. most folks on repeaters are pretty welcoming to new people, at least around here they are.

yeah what he said about the baofeng menus is right, they're a bit confusing at first. also just wanted to mention - some repeaters around here are linked into like a regional network thing, EchoLink or IRLP or AllStarLink, and sometimes when you key up you might be heard by people pretty far away without realizing it. not a big deal just kind of cool and also worth knowing so you dont say anything dumb thinking its just a local thing lol. happened to me when i first got started, said something totally mundane and some guy from like three states over came back to me and i panicked