ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now, technician class, and ive been trying to use the local 2m repeater that the club runs. i programmed in the frequency and offset no problem but when i key up nobody seems to hear me and i never hear the courtesy tone or anything. a guy at the club night mentioned something about a PL tone but honestly the explanation went right over my head.

from what i can gather its like a subaudible tone you have to transmit so the repeater knows to open up? i looked up the tone for the repeater on repeaterbook and it says 100.0 hz but i dont know if ive actually got that set in my radio correctly. im using a baofeng uv-5r and the menu system is honestly a nightmare to figure out. also is there like a proper way to make your first call on a repeater or do you just talk? i dont want to step on anyone or be rude about it

yeah you've basically got it right, CTCSS (which is what PL tone usually refers to, they mean the same thing in practice) is a continuous subaudible tone that your radio sends along with your voice when you transmit. the repeater listens for that specific tone and if it doesnt hear it, it wont activate. so if you're not sending 100.0 hz you'll key up and nothing happens on the repeater's end, which sounds exactly like what you're experiencing.

on the uv-5r there's a menu item usually labeled T-CTCS or something like that for the transmit tone - make sure you're setting the transmit side, not the receive side. the receive CTCSS is different, that's for filtering what YOU hear, which honestly you probably dont need to mess with right now. just get the transmit tone set and try again. and for calling on a repeater, most people just say their callsign and that they're listening or monitoring, like "W1XYZ monitoring" and wait to see if anyone comes back. some repeaters have a specific check-in format if there's a net going on so just listen for a bit first before jumping in.

oh man i was in the exact same boat like 6 months ago, the baofeng menus are so confusing when you first start. i actually had to watch a youtube video like four times before i got the tone set right. once i did though it worked fine. one thing i'd add is that some repeaters also have a carrier access option where you dont need a tone at all - but yeah if repeaterbook lists one you definitely need it. good luck, it clicks eventually