so ive been a tech for about a year and a half now and honestly the HF thing is starting to bug me, i hear guys on 40m and 20m and just want to get in there. my buddy said the general exam isnt that much harder than the technician one but i dunno, looking at the question pool it seems like theres a lot more about like propagation and electrical theory that i dont remember from tech.

i mostly been using the hamstudy.org site to practice and im getting like 75-80% on the practice tests but im not sure if thats good enough. the actual pass score is 74% right? so i guess im borderline. anyone been through this recently and have tips on what areas to actually focus on? the electrical stuff is what keeps tripping me up, like the LC circuit questions and some of the impedance stuff.

also once i actually pass, whats the process for getting on HF right away, does the FCC update your license automatically or do i have to wait for a new physical card or something

the general is definitely a step up from tech but honestly not as bad as people make it out to be. i studied for maybe 3 weeks using hamstudy and gordon west's book and passed with an 88. the electrical theory questions are annoying but theres only so many ways they can ask about ohms law and reactance, just grind the practice tests until the wrong answers start looking obviously wrong to you, thats kind of the trick.

on the FCC thing -- once you pass the VE session they submit it electronically and it usually shows up in the ULS database within a day or two, sometimes same day if theyre quick about it. you dont need the physical card to operate, as soon as it shows active in ULS youre good to go on the HF bands. i was on 40m the next afternoon after passing. just make sure you know your new privileges cause the general HF allocations are a little confusing at first, especially on 75/80m where the phone portion starts at different frequencies depending on region.

75-80% on practice tests you should be fine honestly, i was hovering around there and passed no problem. dont overthink the LC stuff, just memorize the formulas and remember that higher capacitance or inductance means lower resonant frequency, that pattern shows up like four times in different forms.

one thing nobody told me was that after you upgrade you kinda want to have at least a basic HF antenna ready because otherwise passing the exam feels anticlimactic lol. i spent two weeks with general privileges and no antenna that would actually work below 10m so just... plan ahead if you havent already