ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (tech class) and i finally got a Baofeng UV-5R which i know i know everybody has opinions about those but its what i could afford. anyway i programmed in the local 147.xxx repeater and i can hear people talking on it just fine but when i try to transmit nobody responds and im not sure if they can even hear me.

i looked up the repeater on repeaterbook and it shows a CTCSS tone of 100.0 Hz but i honestly dont fully understand what that means or how to check if ive set it up right on the radio. i set something in the menu called CTCSS T but there are like 50 menu options on this thing and half of them make no sense. also someone on another forum said something about needing to set the receive tone too but i wasnt sure if that applied here.

also separate question kind of — when i do get on the repeater is there any like etiquette i should know about? i dont want to step on someone mid conversation or do something embarrassing. heard there's kind of an unwritten rulebook for this stuff

so the CTCSS thing — what you want is to set the transmit tone (the T-CTCSS or whatever Baofeng calls it in that menu) to 100.0 Hz and leave the receive side either off or open squelch. the receive tone setting is for when YOU want to only hear transmissions that include a certain tone, which is a different thing and not required just to access a repeater. a lot of people leave receive tone off entirely and just let the radio unsquelch on carrier like normal.

the simplest way to confirm you're getting into the repeater is to listen for the courtesy tone or tail — after someone transmits on a good repeater theres usually a brief beep or a short carrier drop before squelch closes. if you key up and hear that same thing happen right after your transmission, you're probably making it in. some repeaters also have an ID beep when you first access them.

as for etiquette, main thing is just listen before you transmit. if a QSO is going on, wait for a pause between overs before jumping in. most repeater users are pretty welcoming to new folks especially if you just say youre new and checking in — honestly most elmers on a local machine are thrilled when someone new shows up.

was in the exact same spot like a year ago lol. the baofeng menu is genuinely terrible but once you figure out the CTCSS transmit setting it should work. one thing that tripped me up was i had set the tone correctly but i had the radio in a weird VFO mode instead of memory mode so it wasnt saving anything. worth double checking that your programmed channel is actually saving the tone and not just showing it temporarily.

the etiquette stuff is real but honestly people are generally pretty forgiving with new hams. just dont kerchunk the repeater a bunch of times in a row (like keying up without saying anything) and youll be fine. some guys hate that. just give your callsign and say youre listening or testing and most people will come back to you