so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and mostly just do local 2m/70cm stuff, repeaters and some simplex, but ive been getting curious about HF and everyone keeps telling me to just get my General already. i downloaded the question pool and honestly some of it looks intimidating, like the stuff about impedance and transmission lines and all that. i passed the tech exam without too much trouble but i feel like General is a whole different thing.

my question is basically, how long did it take you guys to study and what did you actually use to study? i found HamStudy.org and also there's that Gordon West book i keep seeing mentioned. is it worth buying the book or is just drilling the question pool enough? i dont really have a background in electronics, i work in IT so i get some of the networking analogies but the RF stuff kind of goes over my head. also once i actually get my General what bands should i even start on, like is 40m a good place to start for HF? sorry if this is all over the place im just trying to figure out where to start

honestly the jump from tech to general felt bigger to me than it actually was if that makes sense. i stressed about it for months and then sat down and passed it on the first try with maybe 3 weeks of studying. HamStudy is really all you need if you're consistent with it, just do like 20-30 minutes a day and let the spaced repetition do its thing. the Gordon West book is fine but i found i was basically just reading explanations for things i already memorized from drilling so it depends on how you learn i guess.

for HF after you upgrade, yeah 40 meters is a solid starting point especially in the evenings. lots of activity, you can work pretty decent distances without needing a big antenna, a dipole up even 20 feet will get you somewhere. 20m is the classic DX band but conditions have been kind of all over the place lately so just play around. the thing nobody tells you is the first few HF contacts feel completely different from talking on a repeater, it just hits different when you make a contact with someone 1500 miles away on a wire in your backyard

just did this like 4 months ago, im also an IT person fwiw. the subnetting stuff in networking actually does help weirdly with some of the math concepts but dont overthink it. i just used HamStudy and passed with an 87 or something. the impedance questions look scary but theres really only so many ways they can ask it and once you see the patterns its fine.

40m is great to start, thats where i spend most of my time still tbh