so i finally did it after like 6 months of putting it off, passed the technician exam yesterday at the library session and got my callsign this morning. couldn't even wait, i just jumped on 2 meters with my buddies baofeng and somehow managed to hit a repeater about 12 miles away. the guy on the other end was super patient with me fumbling through my first contact, i forgot to say my callsign at the end like twice and he just gently reminded me. felt kinda embarrassing but also honestly one of the coolest things ive done in a while. anyway just wanted to share because nobody in my house really gets why im so excited about talking to a stranger on a radio

congrats man, that first qso feeling is something else. dont sweat the callsign thing, everybody does that at the start, i did it for like the first week straight. the fact that you got on the air same day you got your call is great, a lot of people buy the radio and then it sits on the shelf for months while they overthink everything. just keep at it and upgrade to general when you get a chance, HF opens up a whole different world

haha same thing happened to me, forgot my call at the end and the other op was like "and your call?" and i just kinda panicked for a second. welcome to the hobby, the repeater guys are usually pretty chill about new folks