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 need a license which i kind of expected but i dont really know what that involves. like is it hard? do you have to know morse code or is that not a thing anymore? i tried reading the FCC website and honestly it just confused me more

also not sure if i should go straight for the technician or if theres something easier. any advice would be helpful, i dont have any electronics background really just kind of interested in the hobby

morse code hasnt been required since like 2007 so dont worry about that. the technician exam is whats called element 2 and its 35 questions, you need to get 26 right to pass. honestly its not that bad at all, i was nervous before mine but the actual test was way easier than i expected after studying

best thing i did was just use hamstudy.org, you can drill questions over and over and it tracks which ones you keep getting wrong. some people also swear by the ARRL technician manual but i found just doing the question pool practice was enough, the whole pool is public so theoretically you could just memorize every answer but actually understanding the material helps when you get on the air and start wondering why things work the way they do

find a local club too if you can, a lot of them run licensing classes and will help you find a VE session to take the test at. mine was like 15 bucks to sit for it

just passed my tech last month actually so this is pretty fresh for me. i used hamstudy and also watched some youtube videos from a guy called KB6NU i think, he has a no nonsense study guide thats pretty cheap. took me maybe 3 weeks of studying like 20-30 mins a night and i passed no problem

one thing i'd say is dont overthink the electrical theory questions, theres only a few of em and you can honestly just memorize the answers even if you dont fully get ohms law or whatever. the rest of it is mostly rules and operating procedures which makes more sense once you read a bit about how the bands work