Giovanni Rossi

yeah baofengs are rough to program by hand honestly. if you haven't already just grab CHIRP, it's free software and you can see all the channel settings laid out in a spreadsheet basically which makes the offset direction and tone stuff way easier to verify at a glance. saved me a ton of headache when i was starting out.
and dont feel bad about the etiquette stuff, i lurked on repeaters for like two months before i ever said anything because i wasn't sure what the "rules" were. most regulars on a friendly repeater are pretty happy when a new call shows up, some of them have been talking to the same four people for years lol.

yeah i go through this every couple years honestly. last time i just started building a kit i'd had sitting in the box forever and that got me back into it. sometimes you just need a reason to actually use the thing again instead of just having it on in the background

congrats on the first activation, 12 contacts is a solid start and yeah you're right that 4 is the minimum so you're well qualified. to answer your questions, chasers definitely watch sotawatch and the spots are huge, that's almost certainly why you got a pileup so fast. self spotting is the way to go especially when you're new and dont have someone to spot you.
for the S2S thing, both activators log it separately in their own logs on the sota database, you log it just like a normal contact but when you submit your log there's a way to mark it as summit to summit and it shows up that way in the system. the other activator does the same on their end. it's worth a few extra points and people get a separate award for S2S contacts so chasers and activators both get excited about them. just make sure you noted their summit reference, should be something like W4C or W5N followed by the summit code. if you didn't catch it during the QSO you might be able to find it by looking at who was spotted active at the same time on sotawatch history.
anyway sounds like you've got the bug now, western NC has some fantastic summits and a lot of them are accessible year round if you're willing to deal with some mud

I used a combination approach that worked great - started with KB6NU's free No-Nonsense study guide to understand the concepts, then hammered the questions on HamStudy.org for the last two weeks. Practice tests are useful because they show exactly where you need to improve, but understanding why each answer is correct makes you a better operator long-term.

For equipment testing, as long as you're genuinely experimenting and learning (not just doing QC for a business), that falls under the "technical investigations" purpose of amateur radio. Keep good notes showing the experimental nature.

Field Day is honestly the perfect starting point and i'd strongly recommend just joining your local club for it rather than going solo your first time. you get to watch how the more experienced ops handle the pileups, learn the exchange format without the pressure of running a whole station yourself, and you can jump on when things quiet down a bit. most clubs are really welcoming about letting newer hams try it out during slower periods like the overnight hours.
for CQ WW that one gets pretty intense especially on phone, the pile ups on the DX stations can be brutal and the exchange involves a zone number that trips people up at first. if you want to try a big contest early on id honestly suggest starting with something like the ARRL November Sweepstakes on CW or phone — the exchange is more involved but the US/Canada only nature of it means youre not trying to pull calls through a wall of stations from 40 different countries all at once. and yes use N1MM or Log4OM from day one, paper logging mid-contest is just chaos and you'll miss the dupe checking which matters a lot

yeah you basically got QSL and QTH right. QRM is interference from other stations, like man-made noise, and QRN is natural static, like lightning crashes and that kind of thing. QSB is when your signal is fading in and out, which happens a lot on HF depending on propagation. there are a ton of them honestly, the original Q codes came from maritime and commercial telegraphy way back before ham radio was even a thing, so some of them are a bit weird out of context.
73 means best regards, pretty much used as a friendly sign-off between hams everywhere. 88 means love and kisses, traditionally only sent to or from female operators but honestly nowadays people use it however they want. you'll also see stuff like 55 sometimes which is supposed to be good luck to new hams specifically but i barely ever hear that one anymore.
honestly the fastest way to learn them is just to keep listening and look them up when you hear something new. ARRL has a reference list, and there are a bunch of phone apps too if you want something quick to pull up on the radio. after a few months it'll just start clicking naturally.

Been doing this since the paper-only days, and LoTW is a game-changer. If you do use paper cards, make sure they're in proper order - band first, then mode - and that your record sheet matches the card order exactly. The new online tools make award chasing so much more enjoyable.

I used a combination approach that worked great - started with KB6NU's free No-Nonsense study guide to understand the concepts, then hammered the questions on HamStudy.org for the last two weeks. Practice tests are useful because they show exactly where you need to improve, but understanding why each answer is correct makes you a better operator long-term.