so i finally did it after studying for like 6 weeks i passed my technician exam yesterday and im pretty pumped but also kind of terrified to actually key up and talk to someone. i have a baofeng uv-5r that my cousin gave me and ive been monitoring my local repeater for a couple days now just listening. everyone sounds so confident and like they know exactly what theyre doing and i feel like ill forget everything the second i open the squelch and try to talk.

did anyone else feel like this at first? i keep rehearsing what i want to say in my head but then i chicken out. my callsign is KD9 something i have to look it up lol, i just got it this morning. anyway just wanted to say hi to the community i guess and maybe get some encouragement or tips for making that first call

congrats on passing man, everyone feels that way at first, literally everyone. i remember sitting in my car in a parking lot for like 20 minutes working up the nerve to call into a net. just do it. worst case you mess up the phonetics or forget to say your callsign and someone will just help you out, people on most repeaters are really welcoming to new hams. find out if your local club has a weekly net and just check in on that, its low pressure and they expect new people to stumble a little. you'll be laughing about how nervous you were inside of a week i promise.

oh man i went through the exact same thing like 4 months ago. what helped me was just jumping on a simplex frequency when it was quiet and calling CQ a few times, felt less scary than breaking into a repeater conversation somehow. also write your callsign on a sticky note and put it on your radio, sounds dumb but i actually forgot mine the first time i tried to talk lol