Robert Taylor32

Had the exact same problem with my Z-11 Pro on 80m EFHW. You must apply power to the tuner for it to tune - try AM mode at 20W and hold transmit for the full cycle. Also make sure your RF power is adequate - these auto-tuners need juice to work properly.

the sub-bands are worth it alone imo, especially if you're into DX. i went for mine mostly for that reason and yeah there's a noticeable difference in how crowded things feel when you can work that little slice below where generals are allowed.
the exam itself, i mean it's 50 questions and you need a 74% so thats 37 right. the pool is like 700 something questions so its a lot to go through but it's manageable. some of the theory is genuinely interesting if youre into that stuff. some of it i still cant explain to you if you asked me right now lol but i passed so whatever

haha that first transmission is always the hardest part, i remember sitting on the repeater for probably two weeks before i said anything. once you do it once though its no big deal. congrats on the license and welcome to the hobby, youll be addicted before you know it. linked repeaters are pretty neat once you wrap your head around em, basically connects a bunch of repeaters together so you can talk way further than youd expect on VHF

the ebay 2SC1969s are almost definitely fakes, thats just reality at this point. ive burned through probably a dozen of them on various projects and maybe half were pulling anything close to spec. try sourcing from RF Parts or even Mouser if they have stock, the genuine ones behave completely differently. i had one project where i was scratching my head for weeks and swapped to a verified transistor and boom, right where i expected it.
also worth checking your drive level into the PA — if your buffer stage isnt putting out enough to drive the base properly you'll just be leaving power on the table no matter how good the transistor is. what are you seeing at the PA input with a scope?