so ive been a tech for about 8 months now and i mostly just do 2m/70cm stuff, some APRS, talked on a few local repeaters. its been fun but i keep hearing people talk about HF and working dx and whatnot and honestly it sounds way more interesting than anything ive done so far.

im thinking about taking the General exam but im not really sure how to study for it or how different it is from the tech exam. the tech exam felt pretty manageable once i went through the question pool a few times on ham study dot org or whatever. is General similar or is there a lot more actual electronics theory i need to understand? i remember struggling a bit with the ohms law stuff on tech and im worried General is going to be like, full of that.

also once you pass, do you get HF privileges right away or do you have to wait for something to update in the FCC system? i dont even have an HF radio yet but im just trying to plan ahead i guess

general is definitely a step up from tech but its not as bad as people make it out to be. theres more propagation stuff, some antenna theory, a bit more on operating practices for HF. the math isnt crazy, mostly just variations on the same ohms law and power formulas you already saw. if you can grind through the question pool same way you did for tech youll probably be fine, most people pass it without understanding every single concept deeply and thats just the reality of how these exams work.

as for privileges, once you pass the VE session they submit your info to the FCC and it usually shows up in the ULS database within a day or two, sometimes faster. technically you're supposed to wait until its in the system before operating on the new bands but a lot of people print out their CSCE from the exam session and call it good. i wouldnt stress too much about the timing part.

HF is a whole different world compared to repeaters, you'll enjoy it. just be prepared for it to be kind of humbling at first when you cant figure out why nobody can hear you

I just did this like two months ago actually, went from tech to general and I studied almost entirely with the hamstudy site and the ARRL general manual. Took me maybe three weeks of casual studying, maybe 20-30 minutes a day. The propagation sections tripped me up a little, like MUF and skip zones and all that, but once it clicks it makes sense. There's also some stuff about HF operating procedures that you just kind of have to memorize.

One thing nobody told me before I upgraded -- once you get on HF it takes a while to figure out what bands are good at what times of day, and right now the solar conditions are pretty decent so 20m and 17m have been really active. I picked up a used Icom 7300 and just started listening for a few weeks before I ever transmitted anything and that helped a lot honestly.