Gregory Smith

ok so i just got my technician license about three weeks ago and i've been trying to use the 147.315 repeater that's listed in the repeaterbook app for my area. i programmed it in with the offset and everything but nobody ever seems to hear me when i key up. i can hear other people just fine but when i try to call out nobody responds and i feel like im just talking into the void lol. my buddy who got licensed a few years ago mentioned something about a CTCSS tone and that i probably need to set that in my radio (i have a baofeng uv-5r, i know i know) but i honestly have no idea what that even means or how to figure out what tone to use. the repeaterbook listing doesnt show one which i thought meant i didnt need it but maybe im wrong? also is there like a specific way you're supposed to call on a repeater or do you just start talking? i dont want to come across as rude if im doing it wrong

first thing id check is whether youre running the GPS antenna somewhere it might be getting a marginal signal even if it says 8 sats. sometimes the position accuracy is garbage even with a decent satellite count if the PDOP is bad. the D710 will tell you the GPS accuracy if you dig into the menus, cant remember exactly where off the top of my head. also worth checking if you have any manual position stuff entered that might be overriding the GPS. ive seen people set a fixed beacon position for testing and then forget to clear it. the radio will happily transmit whatever you told it to even if the GPS is saying something different depending on how you have it configured.