so ive had my tech license for about 8 months now and honestly i use it mostly for 2m and some packet stuff but i keep hearing people talk about HF and it sounds like thats where most of the interesting stuff is happening. been lurking on 40m with my buddies HT just to get a feel for it and yeah i think i want in on that

my question is how different is the general exam from tech, like is it a whole different level of studying or is it more of the same kind of questions just more of them. i looked at a practice test on one of the sites and some of it went over my head pretty quick, the propagation stuff and the operating procedures for HF seemed like a lot. also i dont really understand all the privileges, like which bands do i actually get access to and is there a good chart or something that explains it without being super confusing

any tips from people who went through this recently would be helpful, thanks

general is definitely a step up from tech but its not as scary as it looks at first. the propagation section tripped me up too when i was studying, but honestly once it clicks it makes a lot of sense and you start to see why 40m behaves so differently at night vs daytime and stuff like that. i used hamexam dot org and just drilled the question pool every day for like three weeks, maybe 20 minutes a day, and passed with a pretty comfortable margin

the band privileges thing is a bit confusing at first yeah. basically as a general you get big chunks of most HF bands but there are portions near the bottom of some bands that are reserved for extra class. like on 20m you get phone privileges starting at 14.225 MHz i think, extras get a bit more below that. the ARRL website has a band plan chart that lays it all out, its worth printing and sticking on your wall. 40m and 15m are probably where youll spend most of your time starting out anyway and you get solid access on both

just start drilling the practice tests, dont try to memorize everything conceptually right away, the patterns start to stick and then the concepts make more sense after

passed my general like two months ago after being a tech for almost two years, same situation as you basically. the exam itself wasnt too bad but the electrical theory questions are where people usually get caught out, theres more math than on the tech exam. nothing crazy but like ohms law applied in different ways, some impedance stuff. if math isnt your thing just make sure you know the formulas and practice plugging numbers in

the HF privileges open up a lot, honestly the first time i made a contact on 20m SSB from my living room to someone in Spain i was pretty floored. its a totally different world from 2m repeaters