so i finally did it after like two years of telling myself i was gonna study for the technician exam. passed it last thursday with a 34/35 which i was pretty happy about. anyway today i got brave enough to actually key up on the 147.225 repeater in my area and just said my callsign and that i was a new ham looking to chat. a guy named Bill came back to me almost immediately and we talked for maybe 15 minutes about antennas and he told me about the local club's nets on wednesday nights. honestly kind of nervous the whole time but it was way easier than i expected once i just did it. my audio was a little off apparently, he said i sounded a little muffled, still figuring out the settings on my baofeng. but hey first QSO is done and im not dead lol

congrats on the first QSO man, that first time keying up is honestly the hardest part. it gets way more natural after a few contacts. the muffled audio thing on baofengs is super common, usually its the mic gain setting or you might be holding the PTT button and talking too close to the mic. try holding it like an inch or two away from your face instead of right up against it. also definitely hit that wednesday night net, those are great for getting comfortable with proper procedure without it feeling too high pressure.

34/35 nice, i got a 32 on mine and was just glad to pass lol. i remember my first repeater contact i forgot to give my callsign at the end and the control op had to remind me. good times. welcome to the hobby