ham radio first contact

Continuing the discussion from assorted ham radio thoughts:

This quest is to talk to someone and get a response.

I’ve chosen a repeater, run by the alameda ham radio club.

It is on 444.575 receive and 449.575 transmit frequency. The pl. is 88.5 Hz.
It transmits at a power of 7 watts, and covers our intended area without any problem
The repeater call is K6QLF.

I’ve chosen a “first call” how-to: How to Make Your First Call on a Ham Radio

I’ve chosen instructions to program a local repeater into the radio I have: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-program-a-Yaesu-VX6-ham-radio/ This was found just now by luck! I didn’t even put in the name of my radio. It must be popular!

I tried a few times, no response.

I think I was missing the “tone” setting and the “tone frequency adjustment” setting. I tried fixing them, and setting it to “tone” works, but setting the “tone frequency adjustment” doesn’t work – it stays stuck on the menu that says 88.5 Hz, and none of the buttons work, including the PTT button which is supposed to get me out of the menu.

Tried turning it off and on again, and checked that the “tone” setting and the “tone frequency adjustment” setting are still on, and they are, and tried transmitting again… no answer.

Haha, I’ll keep trying. I wrote down my call sign in alpho bravo charlie -speak so that’s what I’ve been using. lololol