so i picked up the ARRL technician manual a few weeks ago and ive been going through it but honestly im kind of lost on where to even start. theres so much in there and some of it doesnt seem relevant to what i actually want to do which is just get on 2m and maybe HF someday. a guy at my local club told me to just memorize the question pool and not worry about understanding everything but that feels wrong? like i want to actually know what im doing out there. anyway is the ARRL book even the best way to go or is there something else people use. ive seen ham study dot com mentioned a few times but i dont know if thats enough on its own or if you still need the book

honestly the hamstudy.org route is probably fine for passing the exam, most people i know who got their tech in the last few years just drilled the question pool online until they were hitting like 85-90% consistently and then went and took the test. the ARRL book is good if you actually want context for why the answers are what they are but it can be slow going. what i usually tell newcomers is use both — skim the book for the sections on electrical principles and regs because those tend to trip people up, and then use hamstudy for the daily practice. the pool only has like 400 something questions and once you've been through them a few times it starts to stick. the RF safety and band privileges stuff is worth actually understanding though, not just memorizing, youll need that once youre actually on the air

i passed mine about 8 months ago just using hamstudy and maybe 3 weeks of studying on and off, like 20 mins a day on my lunch break. got a 85% on the actual exam. the book is kinda long tbh. if you just want to get licensed and start operating i wouldnt overthink it, you learn way more once you actually have a radio in your hand and start making contacts. the ohms law stuff and the circuit diagrams freaked me out at first but there are like only a handful of those questions and they show up exactly as they are in the pool so