so i passed my technician exam on tuesday and i was so pumped to get on the air. been studying for like two months and honestly the test felt easier than i expected. anyway i set up my baofeng on the local 2m repeater and just sat there for like 20 minutes trying to work up the nerve to actually key up. finally just blurted out my callsign and someone came back to me immediately which i was NOT ready for and i totally fumbled my signal report and forgot to say my callsign at the end. the guy was super nice about it though, walked me through the whole exchange again. i think his name was bill or maybe phil, hard to tell on that repeater it has kind of a weird tone to it. anyway just wanted to say hi to everyone here, been lurking for a while and figured id finally make an account

haha that sounds exactly like my first qso, i think most of us froze up the first time. dont sweat it, youll have the flow down after a few more contacts. the guys on local repeaters are usually pretty patient with new hams. welcome to the hobby, stick with it

welcome welcome. yeah baofengs and repeaters are a great way to start. one thing that helped me early on was just listening to a few full exchanges before jumping in so you get a feel for the rhythm. also write down what you want to say before you key up, sounds silly but i still do it sometimes when im trying a new band or mode and im not sure how the protocol goes. anyway congrats on the ticket