It's no problem, IRC can be very daunting if you're new
would I be right in thinking that some are likely to be more reliable than others?
I don't really know what you mean by 'reliable'? Channels cannot 'disconnect' or anything, nor do they crash. That is impossible. Channels completely rely upon the network - the bigger networks are more 'reliable' than smaller ones, because they often have better-quality servers. (Servers are what you connect to, and they are linked together to form a network).
If you intend to discuss a specific topic such as your radio station I highly doubt you can use someone elses channel, you'll need to create your own.
And also, how do I find out which ones support registering a channel?
Well, that thread states the top 6 networks and describes whether they support channel registration. However, the only other way is to go to the #Help channel (
/join #help) once you are connected to a network, and ask them if the network supports channel registration.
Are the channels likely to be capped at a certain amount of 'chatters'?
That depends...on a lot of IRC channels, no, there is no limit. However, on a lot of others there is a mode called 'limit' (
+l) which limits the number of users in a channel. Simply type
/mode #channel - if +l is set, it will say so, and the number that appears in the list of modes is the maximum number of users a channel can have.
Hope this helps (:
Regards,