so ive been a general for about 3 years now and honestly i keep putting off the extra exam because every time i look at the question pool i just kind of close the browser and go operate instead. the electrical theory stuff especially, like the resonant circuits and the transmission line questions, i took physics in college like 15 years ago and most of it is gone at this point.

i guess my question is whether its actually worth grinding through all that theory or if people mostly just memorize the pool and move on. i hear the privilege thing is nice for the lower portions of HF bands but im not even sure how much id actually use it. someone at my club said the 80 meter and 40 meter extra segments are way less crowded during contests which honestly sounds appealing. is that actually true or was he just trying to talk me into upgrading

also does the extra license actually change anything practically for most people or is it more of a personal achievement thing at this point

the theory isnt as brutal as it looks honestly. yeah there are some filter and impedance matching questions that take a little work to understand but once you get the underlying concept down a lot of the questions start to feel repetitive. i spent maybe 6 weeks going through hamstudy dot org every morning with coffee and by the end i wasnt just memorizing i actually understood most of it which surprised me.

your club friend is right about the band segments btw, during a big contest the general portions of 40 and 80 can get absolutely wall to wall while the extra portion still has some room. not empty but definitely less of a zoo. that alone was worth it for me since i do a fair amount of casual operating on 40 at night and it was getting frustrating fighting for space. the 160 meter privileges are nice too if you ever get into that band, and 60 meters has a few extra channels for extras i think, or maybe thats changed, worth double checking.

as for the personal achievement thing, yeah a little of that too but i dont think thats a bad reason. its the top license, might as well have it if youre serious about the hobby

I just passed my Extra last month after being a General for like 5 years of dragging my feet so I feel this post. Honestly the thing that finally got me was just deciding to stop overthinking it and treat the pool like a project. I didnt try to deeply understand every single question, some of the RF safety and regulations stuff I just flat memorized because the theory behind the exact numbers doesnt really matter for operating.

The advanced theory sections like the reactance and Q factor stuff I did actually try to learn for real because there were enough questions touching on the same concepts that memorizing each one separately felt harder than just getting it. Your mileage may vary on that approach but it worked for me. Took the test at a local club session and passed with a few wrong, probably the operating procedures section tripped me up a bit.

Whether the privileges matter depends on what you do I guess. I was excited about it but then realized my antenna situation limits me more than my license class ever did, so there's that.