so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now, my neighbor has a big antenna setup and it got me curious. i looked it up and apparently you have to take a test? i dont really know what the difference is between all the license types and which one i should go for first. is there like a standard way people study for this or do you just buy a book and hope for the best. i work full time so i dont have a ton of time to study but i want to actually understand the material not just memorize answers if that makes sense

yeah the Technician license is where basically everyone starts, it's the entry level one and gets you on VHF/UHF which is plenty to get going. for studying honestly the HamStudy.org website is what most people use these days, its free and it just drills you on the question pool which is the actual pool they pull the test questions from. there's also the ARRL Technician manual if you want something more in depth but a lot of people find the website enough. the test itself is 35 questions and you need a 74% to pass so like 26 right out of 35. its really not as hard as it sounds, most people who put in a couple weeks of study time pass on the first try. find a local club too, they usually do license exam sessions pretty regularly and sometimes even run free classes

i was in the same spot maybe 8 months ago, just used hamstudy and did like 20-30 practice questions a night after work for maybe two weeks. passed with only like 3 wrong so dont stress it too much. the tech test isnt super deep on the math or anything, just learn the basic concepts and grind the practice tests until youre consistently getting above 80% and youre probably ready. the hardest part for me was finding an exam session nearby but the arrl website has a search tool for that