so ive been a tech for about 8 months now and honestly i mostly just use my HT for local repeaters but ive been hearing people talk about HF and it sounds really interesting. a guy at my club said i should just go ahead and take the General exam but im not really sure where to start studying or how hard it actually is compared to the tech exam.

the tech exam wasnt too bad for me, i used hamstudy.org and just drilled questions for like 3 weeks. is the General pool similar to that or is there a lot more actual theory stuff i need to understand? i dont want to just memorize answers without knowing whats going on but also i dont have a ton of free time right now.

also once i pass, what HF bands do i actually get access to as a General? i know Extras get everything but i wasnt sure exactly what General opens up. any help appreciated

General is definitely a step up from Tech but its really not that bad if you already passed Tech. the extra theory stuff is mostly around things like propagation, some basic electronics, operating procedures for HF, and the regs around HF bands. hamstudy is still great for it, same deal, just more questions in the pool.

for bands -- as a General you get big chunks of 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m which honestly is plenty to get started on HF. 40m at night is where i'd point any new HF op first, you can work a ton of stations without needing great conditions or a fancy antenna. you dont get the phone portions of 17m and a few others until Extra but realistically General gets you enough to keep busy for years. i wouldnt stress about Extra right away, just get on HF and have fun first then decide if you want to push for it.

one thing i'll say is dont skip understanding the electrical theory bits even loosely -- not because the exam is tricky but because it'll actually help you troubleshoot stuff once you have a rig running.

i just did this like two months ago lol, upgraded from tech after being one for almost a year. honestly i studied for maybe 10 days just using hamstudy and passed fine. the questions about like, impedance matching and stuff i just kind of memorized the answers for and figured id learn what it actually means later once i had a radio.

the HF thing is kind of overwhelming at first tho ngl, i got a used IC-7300 off QRZ classifieds and spent the first week just figuring out the menus. but making my first 20m contact was pretty cool, worked a station in florida from ohio which felt like nothing but still