so ive been studying for like two months and passed my tech exam last week and i finally just keyed up on the local 2m repeater yesterday afternoon and said my callsign and asked if anyone was around and this guy came back to me immediately and we chatted for like 20 minutes about nothing really, just weather and how long ive had my license and stuff

i know its just a local repeater contact and nothing crazy but man it felt like a huge deal. my hands were literally shaking when i picked up the mic. the guy on the other end was super patient with me, i fumbled my callsign twice lol. anyway just wanted to post somewhere because my wife thinks im a nerd and doesnt really get why this is exciting

haha yeah that first qso feeling is real, i remember mine pretty clearly and that was like 12 years ago. i was so nervous i forgot to give a signal report and the other guy had to ask me twice. dont worry it gets more natural fast, give it a week or two on the repeater and youll be chatting away without even thinking about it. welcome to the hobby

congrats. my first contact was a complete disaster, i had the wrong offset programmed in and couldnt figure out why nobody was responding for like three days. finally someone at the club meeting told me what i did wrong. your experience sounds way smoother than mine was.