so i passed my technician exam like 3 weeks ago and ive been sitting on my baofeng too scared to actually key up on anything. kept listening to the local repeater for ages just trying to figure out the etiquette and work up the nerve. yesterday i finally just did it, called out on the 146.520 simplex and some guy named Dave came back to me right away. we talked for maybe 10 minutes about nothing really, just signal reports and weather and he asked where i was. honestly my hands were shaking the whole time lol. anyway just wanted to post because i feel like i finally actually crossed over from licensed to actually being a ham if that makes sense

that feeling never fully goes away tbh, i remember my first contact was on 2m SSB and i totally forgot my callsign halfway through. the guy on the other end just waited patiently while i fumbled around, hams are generally pretty good about that stuff. congrats and now the hard part - youre gonna want a real radio in about two weeks, fair warning

welcome to the hobby man. shaking hands is totally normal, i did my first HF contact on 40m and literally read my exchange off a notecard i taped to the desk. dont even worry about it people on the air are mostly pretty chill especially if you just mention youre new