so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now mostly because of the whole emergency preparedness angle but also just think its cool, my neighbor has like 3 antennas on his roof and hes always doing stuff on his radio. anyway I went to look up how to get licensed and theres like a million different websites and apps and study guides and I genuinely dont know whats worth using vs whats a waste of time. do I just memorize the question pool or is there actually stuff I need to understand? also how hard is the actual test, im not great at electronics stuff but im not totally clueless either. any advice appreciated, sorry if this is a dumb question

not a dumb question at all, everyone starts somewhere. honestly for the tech exam the question pool is totally public so you can just study directly from it, theres 35 questions on the real test all pulled from a pool of like 400 something. HamStudy dot org is what most people use now, it does this spaced repetition thing where it figures out which questions you keep getting wrong and drills you on those. took me maybe 2-3 weeks of like 20 mins a day before I felt ready. the electronics stuff isnt too bad for tech, theres some ohms law questions but nothing you cant handle if you watch a youtube video about it. ARRL has an official study guide book too but honestly between hamstudy and maybe ham radio prep app you probably dont need to spend money on anything. just take practice exams until youre consistently hitting 85% or above and youll be fine on the real thing

Ham Study is the go-to, yeah. I'd also say dont overlook just finding a local club and asking if they do license classes, a lot of clubs run free sessions and sometimes they even cover the exam fee. plus you get to meet people which honestly is half the point. the test itself isnt bad, I think I saw one guy pass it after studying for like four days. understanding the material helps more than pure memorization in my opinion because some of the questions are worded weird and if you actually know why the answer is right it clicks faster. once you get your ticket come back and ask about the general exam, that ones a bit more involved but the path is the same really