Michelle Baker

so i finally got my technician ticket back in march and ive been mostly just listening on the local 2m repeater for the past couple months trying to figure out how things work before i actually key up. well last night i worked up the nerve to check into the tuesday evening net and honestly it went okay but i had no idea what i was doing half the time.
the net control called for check-ins and i just said my callsign and that i was monitoring, which seemed fine, but then later he asked if anyone had traffic and i just stayed quiet because i didnt really know what that meant in context. also at one point someone asked for a signal report and i wasnt sure if i was supposed to give one since i hadnt really talked to that person directly. i just stayed quiet again.
is there like a good resource for learning net procedures or is it really just one of those things you pick up by listening? i dont want to step on anyone or do something rude without knowing it.

-20 dBm is definitely too hot for LO leakage, you could be causing interference plus its going to desensitize your receive path if any of it reflects back. with a hand wound diode ring mixer the balance is really sensitive to how evenly matched your diodes are and the symmetry of the toroid windings. worth trying to select your 1N4148s for matched forward voltage, even a small mismatch kills the balance. ive built a few of these and honestly getting below -40 dBm with hand selected diodes and careful winding is doable but takes some iteration.
for the hum i'd suspect the supply first, those cheap wall warts are pretty noisy. try running it off a battery and see if the hum goes away, that'll tell you right away whether its the supply or something else like a ground loop in the audio stage.

honestly i just gave up trying to keep one master log and accepted that N1MM is my contest log and Log4OM is everything else. the import after the contest works good enough. not perfect but close enough that i dont lose sleep over it

I had the same thing with wobbly paddles when I started, turned out I just hadn't set the gap properly and the contacts were bouncing. There's a really good video on YouTube by OH8STN I think it was, about paddle adjustment — worth looking up. Also the N0SA sending practice videos helped me a lot just to hear what good rhythm actually sounds like and then try to copy it. Hang in there, 6 months in and already copying 13 wpm is honestly solid progress.

honestly i just gave up trying to keep one master log and accepted that N1MM is my contest log and Log4OM is everything else. the import after the contest works good enough. not perfect but close enough that i dont lose sleep over it

oh man yes this is exactly what i went through last year. coming back after time off is rough because your brain kind of remembers the code but your hands definitely dont. what helped me was actually slowing way down — i mean painfully slow, like 10-12 wpm — and just doing one letter at a time until it felt effortless, then bumping up a couple wpm. the frustration usually comes from pushing speed before the muscle memory is solid.
on the keyer timing stuff, the built in 7300 keyer is honestly pretty decent, ive heard worse in dedicated units that cost real money. but i would play with the weight setting more than you probably have — try bumping the weight up just a hair from default and see if that helps the dits feel a bit more defined at slower speeds. paddle tension is personal but a lot of people set it too loose when they first start, which causes bounce and errors. snug it up a tiny bit and see if that helps your accuracy. and give it time, seriously, its not gonna click overnight but one day itll just start feeling right again.