so i passed my technician exam on tuesday and have been lurking on 2m with my baofeng for a few days just listening, finally worked up the nerve to answer a CQ on the local repeater yesterday and i completely blanked on my callsign mid-transmission. just said my name and then dead air for like 5 seconds before i remembered to say my call. the other guy was super patient about it though and we had a nice chat for maybe 10 minutes, talked about his antenna setup and he gave me some tips about when the repeater gets more traffic on weekends.

anyway just wanted to introduce myself, been reading posts here for months before i even started studying. this hobby is way more welcoming than i expected honestly. still trying to figure out the whole phonetic alphabet thing without having to look it up every time

haha dont worry about blanking on your call, literally everyone does that the first time. i transmitted on the wrong repeater offset for my first three contacts and couldnt figure out why nobody was coming back to me. took me an embarrassingly long time to sort that out

the phonetics just click eventually, give it a few weeks of actually using them and youll stop having to think about it

Welcome to the hobby. That first QSO nervousness never fully goes away, which is kind of a good thing I think - keeps you sharp. You mentioned the baofeng, which is fine for getting started on local repeaters but once you get comfortable you might want to look at something with a proper receiver if you start getting interested in weak signal work or just want better audio. Not a knock on the radio, just something to think about down the road. The local club in most areas will have nets specifically for new hams, worth checking if yours does that sort of thing. Good way to practice without the pressure of a cold contact.