so ive been a tech for about 8 months now and mostly just been doing 2m/70cm stuff, some local repeaters, helped out with a couple ARES nets. but ive been reading more about HF and honestly it sounds way more interesting than i thought when i first got licensed. my elmer keeps telling me to just go ahead and take the general exam already but im not sure im ready

i went through the question pool once on hamstudyorg and got kind of overwhelmed. theres a lot of stuff about propagation and electrical theory that i dont really understand, like i can memorize the answers but i dont actually know why some of the stuff is right. is that how most people do it or should i try to actually learn the material before taking it

also once i pass, what does that actually open up for me practically speaking. like which bands am i actually going to want to use first if i just have a basic HF rig. i dont have anything set up for HF yet so this is all kind of hypothetical still

honestly the general exam isnt that bad, i was stressed about it too but passed first try with like a week of studying on hamstudy. the pool has a lot of questions but there's definitely patterns once you go through it a few times. the electrical theory stuff you dont really need to fully understand to pass, though it does help later when youre actually troubleshooting stuff on the bench

as for HF bands once you get the ticket, most people i know who are new to HF kind of gravitate toward 40m and 20m first. 40m is great at night for regional stuff and 20m opens up pretty well during the day and you can work some decent DX even with modest antennas. if youre into just casual ragchewing 40m SSB is usually pretty active. honestly just go take the exam, you can keep studying the theory after you get the upgrade, nothing stops you from learning more once youre on the air

I did the same thing you're describing, just memorized the pool and passed. Felt a little weird not knowing what I was actually answering sometimes but it got me the license and then I learned the real stuff by actually operating. The exam is kind of its own thing separate from actually knowing how radio works if that makes sense.

One thing though — if you dont have an HF rig yet, maybe look into what antenna situation you have before worrying too much about bands. I spent way too long researching radios before realizing my apartment was going to be the actual limiting factor. ended up starting with a random wire out a window which was a whole other adventure.