so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now, mostly because my neighbor has a big antenna setup and he let me listen in on some contacts he was making and it just seemed really cool. anyway i looked it up and apparently you have to take a test? i dont really know where to start or what the test is even like. is it hard? do i need to know a lot of math or electronics stuff because im not super technical. i found some websites but there were like 5 different ones and i dont know which one is actually good or if i should just buy a book or something. also not sure what license level to even go for, someone told me there are like 3 of them

dont stress about it too much honestly. the technician exam is the entry level one and its 35 questions, all multiple choice, and the question pool is completely public so you can literally study the exact questions that will be on the test. i used hamstudy.org when i was studying and it was free and pretty solid, just kept doing practice exams until i was consistently passing them. took me maybe 2-3 weeks of studying on and off. theres a little bit of math but nothing crazy, mostly just ohms law stuff and even then you can usually reason through it without memorizing formulas. general class is the next step up and opens up a lot more HF privileges but you dont need to worry about that right now, just get the tech ticket first and go from there

yeah hamstudy is what most people use these days. there used to be this thing called QRZ practice exams too which i still like but honestly any of the major ones pull from the same pool so it doesnt matter much. the Gordon West book is what i studied from back when i did mine and i liked having an actual book to flip through but plenty of people just do it online now and do fine. one thing i'd say is dont wait too long once you feel ready, find a local club doing a testing session and just go sit for it. ARRL website has a tool to find exam sessions near you. the club people running the VE sessions are usually pretty friendly, its not some intimidating DMV situation or anything like that