ok so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now, my neighbor has a big antenna setup and it got me curious. i looked into it a bit and i guess theres different levels of licenses? technician then general then something else? im honestly not sure where to begin studying or even what the test is actually like. do you just memorize answers or do you actually have to understand the stuff. i dont want to fail it and feel dumb lol. any suggestions on how to study would be appreciated, i have maybe an hour a night to put into it

yeah so theres Technician, General, and Amateur Extra — Technician is where everyone starts and honestly its not that bad. i used hamstudy.org to study for mine, just did like 20-30 questions a day for a couple weeks and it tracks how youre doing so you can focus on the weak areas. the question pool is public so technically you could just memorize the answers but i found it way easier to understand at least the basic concepts otherwise some of the questions trip you up when they word them slightly different. the test itself is 35 questions and you need a 74% to pass so 26 correct. find a local club and they usually hold VE sessions pretty regularly, some clubs even do free study sessions before the test which is really helpful if you dont know anyone yet. good luck with it, most people pass on the first try if they actually study

i just did this like 3 months ago so i can tell you from recent experience — hamstudy.org is the one everyone recommends and it really does work. i also watched some youtube videos when i hit topics i didnt get, there's a few channels that walk through the whole technician pool. the actual test was way less stressful than i expected, the VEs were super friendly and the room was quiet. one thing i wish someone told me is to read each question really carefully because some of them are worded to trip you up, like they ask for the WRONG answer or the exception. took me about 3 weeks of casual studying and passed with like 32/35 so it's totally doable