so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and mostly just do local stuff on 2m and 70cm, some APRS and a little DMR. but ive been getting more curious about HF and everyone keeps telling me to just go get my General already. i downloaded a study app and honestly some of the questions are like... fine, but then theres a whole chunk about electrical principles and band plans that kind of loses me.

my main question i guess is how long did people actually study before feeling ready? i dont want to show up and fail, thats kind of my worst fear. also is there anything specific that trips people up that i should really focus on? i heard the regulations section is annoying. and do i need to know all the specific frequency limits for each HF band or is that something you just kind of pick up later?

sorry if this is a vague question i just dont really know what i dont know yet if that makes sense

honestly the General exam isnt bad at all if you put in a few weeks with a decent question pool app. i used hamstudyorg when i did mine last year and just drilled questions every evening for maybe 20-30 minutes. the electrical stuff like calculating impedance and the reactance questions tripped me up at first but once you just accept that youre memorizing the formulas rather than fully understanding them from first principles it gets a lot easier. at least for the purpose of passing the test.

the frequency allocations are actually worth learning, not just for the exam but because you'll actually use that info once you get on HF. like knowing that phone is generally in the upper portion of a band and stuff like that. its not as much raw memorization as it sounds once you sit with it a bit. i think i studied for maybe 3 weeks and passed with only a couple wrong. you'll be fine just dont overthink it and book the exam before you feel totally ready, that deadline pressure helped me a lot

yeah same boat here, just passed mine like 6 weeks ago after being a tech for almost 3 years lol. the regs section is whatever honestly, mostly common sense stuff if you already know the basic tech rules. what got me was the propagation questions, like i had no real mental model for how skywave works and those questions felt random at first. once i watched a couple youtube videos on it something clicked and it was fine after that.

dont stress about failing, worst case you just take it again. testing fees are pretty cheap