so ive had my technician for about two years now mostly just doing local 2m stuff and some APRS and i keep hearing people talk about HF and it sounds really cool but i dont really know what im getting into with the General exam. like is it way harder than the tech exam was? i remember the tech exam being not that bad but i was also studying pretty hard for a couple weeks with the hamstudy website.

i guess my main question is how long did it take you guys to feel ready for the General exam and is there any specific part that trips people up the most. i feel like i barely understand propagation as it is and i keep reading stuff about the bands being open or closed and i dont really know what that means practically. someone at my local club said the electrical theory section is the hardest part but then someone else said it wasnt that bad. also once i actually get General what would i even need to get on HF, like do i need a whole new radio or can i do anything with what i have

the theory stuff on General isnt as scary as people make it out to be honestly. there are some impedance calculations and stuff with decibels that look intimidating but if you just work through the question pool a few times it starts to click. i used hamstudy dot org again same as tech and i think i studied maybe three weeks on and off before i felt comfortable. took the test and passed with only a couple wrong.

propagation is one of those things that gets way clearer once you actually start operating. like reading about 10 meters being open means nothing until you turn on a radio and hear stations from europe rolling in. as for gear yeah youll need an HF radio unless you already have something, most tech licensees dont bother with one. a used Icom 718 or a Yaesu FT-450 or something like that is a pretty common starting point and you can find them reasonable on qrz dot com classifieds or on the swap nets. dont go buying a brand new radio until you know what you actually want to do on HF because there are a lot of different directions you can go

i just upgraded last month so this is pretty fresh for me lol. honestly the hardest part for me was the operating procedures stuff weirdly, like i kept mixing up which frequencies are phone vs cw vs digital segments in the band plans. the math didnt bother me that much but i did have to look up how to do the ohms law and power calculations a few times before they stuck.

one thing i will say is dont underestimate how different HF actually feels compared to 2m. i borrowed a friends radio before i even passed the test just to listen around and it was kind of overwhelming at first, lots of noise and you have to learn how to tune around and figure out whats actually a signal vs static. but once i got my ticket upgraded i got on 40 meters with a dipole i threw up in the backyard and made my first contact like the same weekend, so it does come together pretty fast once you just jump in