so i've been interested in ham radio for a while now, my neighbor has a big antenna setup and it always looked cool to me. i finally decided i want to actually get licensed but i have no idea where to begin. i looked up the FCC stuff and there's like technician, general, extra?? do i have to take them all or can i just go straight to technician and be done with it for now

also i found this site called hamstudy.org but i dont know if thats what people actually use or if there are better options. i have maybe 2-3 weeks before theres a test session near me and im wondering if thats enough time. the practice tests seem pretty doable but some of the electrical theory questions are going over my head a little

any advice from people who already went through this would be really appreciated, i dont really know anyone else doing this hobby

hamstudy is exactly what most people use honestly, you're already on the right track. two or three weeks is plenty of time for tech, i think i studied maybe a week and a half before my exam and passed no problem. the pool of questions is fixed so what you're practicing is literally what will be on the test, just different combinations.

the electrical theory stuff you don't need to fully understand for the exam, you can just memorize the answers and move on. some people say you should actually learn it and yeah eventually that's useful but for getting the ticket just passing is fine. you can always go back and learn the why later once you're actually on the air.

when you find a test session check if it's with a VEC club near you, a lot of them are free or just a few bucks. and if you pass tech that day some clubs will let you just go ahead and take the general exam right after for no extra fee, might as well try it if you feel good

i just did this like two months ago so pretty fresh in my memory lol. i used hamstudy too and also the ham radio prep app on my phone which was nice for doing questions when i was sitting around waiting for stuff. took me about 12 days of casual studying, maybe 30-45 min a day and i got an 84 on the tech exam which was more than enough

the ohms law questions tripped me up at first but theres like a simple formula triangle thing you can look up and once i got that the math questions were easy. dont stress too much about the ones you dont understand right away, just keep doing the practice tests and the answers start to stick