so ive been a tech for about two years now and honestly i mostly just use my HT on the local repeaters and do some APRS stuff but ive been wanting to get on HF for a while now and everyone keeps telling me to just go get my general already

the thing is i dont really know where to start with studying. i tried looking at the question pool and it seems like a lot of it is stuff i dont recognize at all, like propagation and operating procedures for HF and some electrical stuff that i barely remember from the tech exam. is the general actually a big jump from tech or am i overthinking it

also someone mentioned something about HamStudy and another guy in my club said to just get the gordon west book. does it matter which one i use or should i do both? i have maybe like 3-4 weeks before theres a test session nearby and i dont know if thats enough time

3-4 weeks is plenty honestly, i did it in like 10 days when i was motivated. HamStudy is free and pretty solid for drilling the question pool which is really what the test comes down to. the gordon west book is fine if you want the actual explanations behind the answers but if youre pressed for time just do the practice exams on HamStudy until youre consistently hitting 80%+ and youll be fine

the electrical theory questions tripped me up at first too, stuff like impedance and the reactance formulas, but theres really only so many ways they can ask it and once you see the pattern it clicks. propagation stuff is actually kind of interesting once you start playing with HF for real, like understanding why 40m acts totally different at night vs daytime actually makes sense once you get on the air

dont stress too much about fully understanding every single concept before the test, get your ticket first then the rest comes from actually operating

yeah i went through the same thing a few months ago. i used both hamstudy and the arrl general book and i think having the book helped me actually understand whats going on instead of just memorizing answers, but honestly either way works for passing the test

one thing i wasnt ready for was how much HF operating is just kind of different from repeater stuff, like nobody is really holding your hand and you have to figure out band conditions and where to actually find people talking. 40 meters is a good starting point i think, lots of activity and the antenna requirements arent too crazy if you dont have a huge yard