so ive had my technician license for about 8 months now and honestly i mostly just use it for local repeaters and some 2m stuff but ive been reading about HF and it sounds really cool, like actually talking to people across the country or whatever. my buddy told me i should just go ahead and upgrade to general since the test isnt that much harder than tech but i dont really know what to study or how different the material is.

the tech exam felt pretty manageable once i went through the question pool a few times on that hamexam website. is general like that too or is there actually harder concepts i need to understand for real? im worried about the electrical theory parts because i barely passed that section on the tech exam honestly. also once i get general what bands am i actually going to have access to that i dont have now, i know there are some HF privileges but im fuzzy on the specifics

general is definitely a step up from tech but its not as scary as people make it seem. the question pool is bigger and yeah the electrical theory gets a bit more into it, things like impedance and how filters work and some basic propagation stuff. but honestly the same approach works — just grind through the question pool and make sure you actually understand why the answers are right, not just memorize them. HamStudy and hamexam both have good practice tests.

as far as bands go, you're gonna open up big chunks of 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m which is where a ton of the DX action happens. 20m especially is like the workhorse band, you can work stations across the US and internationally pretty much any time of day when conditions are decent. 40m is great at night for regional stuff, like talking to people a few states over. you'll have some restrictions still in certain band segments that are extra class only but general gets you way more than enough to have a blast on HF. just go take it, worst case you learn something and take it again

i was in the exact same spot like a year ago, had my tech and kept hearing people talk about 20 meters and DX contacts and finally just decided to go for it. the electrical theory wasnt as bad as i expected, i mean some of it is just like knowing what a capacitor does in a circuit or understanding SWR at a basic level, you dont have to be an engineer or anything. there are a few forumlas but they come up pretty predictably in the pool so you kinda just learn them.

one thing i'd say is once you pass, dont wait forever to get on HF. i spent like two months after getting my general just reading about antennas and never actually transmitting and that was dumb lol. even a simple wire dipole in the backyard will get you on the air and youll learn way more from actually making contacts than from reading