so i've only been licensed since march and ive been checking into the tuesday evening net on the local 2m repeater pretty regularly. last week i wasn't sure if the net control had called my callsign or someone with a similar one, so i just went ahead and gave my call and said i was checking in. turns out it wasn't my turn and apparently i stepped on someone. the net control was pretty nice about it but i could tell a couple of the other guys were a little annoyed.

i guess my question is what's the proper thing to do when you're not sure if you heard your call? do you just wait it out and hope net control circles back, or is there some way to ask without being rude about it? i really don't want to cause problems on the net because everyone seems to know each other really well and i feel like the new kid at school every time i check in lol

oh man dont worry about it at all, we've all done stuff like that when we were new. honestly even some guys who've been licensed for years still fumble net procedures sometimes.

the safest thing to do is just wait. if net control missed you they'll usually do a second round or ask if theres anyone they missed before closing. most nets have that built in. if you're really not sure you heard your call you can wait for a pause and just say something like "[your callsign], did you copy me?" or something short like that. net control will figure it out.

the thing is net control is usually listening for exactly this kind of confusion and a good one will sort it out without making anyone feel bad. sounds like yours did alright. keep checking in, you'll get the flow of it pretty quick.

yeah same thing happened to me on my first ragchew net, except i actually transmitted over someone mid-sentence which was way worse. the guy was pretty gracious about it but i wanted to crawl under my desk. i think with nets you just kind of have to accept theres gonna be a learning curve with the timing and the way different nets run because they're all a little different honestly.