so ive been a tech for about two years now and mostly just done VHF/UHF stuff, some APRS, handheld stuff. been wanting to get on HF for a while now and finally decided to just sit down and actually study for the general exam. got the ARRL general manual and been going through it slowly but honestly some of this stuff is pretty dense

my main question is like, how hard is the actual test compared to technician? i remember technician being not too bad, took me maybe 3 weeks of casual studying. is general a big jump? i keep seeing people say the electrical theory part is rough but im not sure if thats just people exaggerating or what

also what bands am i actually going to have access to once i upgrade? i know i get some HF privileges but i cant remember exactly which ones and what portions. like do i get full 40m or just parts of it? been wanting to try 40m for some reason, seems like the band everyone talks about

the jump from tech to general is noticeable but its not like crazy hard if youve been actually doing radio stuff for a while. the electrical theory and the propagation questions tripped me up at first but honestly once you get through the pool a few times it clicks. i used ham study dot org to drill questions and that helped way more than just reading the book cover to cover

as for 40m, yeah you get a good chunk of it as a general. techs get a tiny sliver up around 7.225 or so for phone i think, but as general you get phone from 7.175 up to 7.300 and cw/digital below that. 40m is great for regional stuff in the daytime and can go pretty far at night, you picked a good band to start with. just be aware it gets crowded on weekends especially during contests, which can be either annoying or fun depending on your mood

I took my general last spring after being a tech for like 4 years doing nothing but local repeaters lol. Honestly the theory wasnt as bad as I thought once I just accepted that I didnt need to fully understand everything, I just needed to know the answers. That sounds bad but for the exam that's kind of the reality. You can always dig deeper later once you're actually on the air and experimenting.

One thing nobody told me was that the regulations section catches people off guard more than the theory does. Stuff about third party traffic, foreign communications, that kind of thing. Easy to overlook if youre focused on ohms law and tank circuits the whole time.