Somebody answered you. Now what?
Before you key up
- Leave a full second of silence between each transmission. Other people may need to break in, and repeaters have timeout timers.
- Nobody expects you to be interesting. The bar is genuinely just 'be pleasant.'
What to say
They say: “your callsign, good evening, this is their callsign, go ahead.”
You say: “Good evening, thanks for coming back. My name is your name and I'm in your town. This is actually one of my first contacts. How am I sounding into the repeater?”
Saying you're new is not a weakness. It reliably makes people friendlier and more helpful. Hams like helping new hams — that's the whole culture.
They say: “You're full quieting into the machine, sounding great. Welcome aboard! I'm Dave over in Sugar Land…”
You say: “Good to meet you, Dave. I just got licensed last month and I'm running a handheld. Appreciate you giving me a first contact.”
Ask them about their radio or their antenna if you run out of things to say. It never fails.
What they will say back
Expect friendliness. Repeater regulars are usually delighted when a new voice shows up.
If it goes sideways
If you completely blank on what to say next: "Well, I don't want to hold the repeater — thanks again for the contact. your callsign in phonetics, clear." That's a perfectly graceful exit at any moment.
Why it works this way
"Full quieting" means your signal is strong enough that the repeater hears no background hiss. It's the standard VHF compliment. On HF you'd get a numeric signal report instead; on a repeater everyone is either full quieting or scratchy, so plain words work better than numbers.
Open this in Pocket Elmer, with your callsign filled in
More things to say
- Your very first transmission — Announcing yourself on a repeater
- Calling a specific person — When you know who you want to talk to
- Ending a contact gracefully — How to get out of a conversation