so ive been a tech for about 8 months now and mostly just been doing local stuff on 2m and 70cm, talked to a few people on the repeaters and done some APRS stuff but honestly im getting a little bored and everyone keeps telling me to get my general so i can get on HF. my question is how hard is the general exam compared to tech, i remember the tech exam wasnt too bad but i didnt really study the electrical theory stuff much and just kind of brute forced the question pool. is the general more of the same or is there actually stuff i need to understand for real this time. also whats the deal with HF privileges for general vs extra, like is it worth just going straight for extra or should i just get general first and see how it goes. i dont even have an HF rig yet so maybe this is all getting ahead of myself but figured id ask

general is definitely a step up from tech but its not like crazy hard if you put in a couple weeks of study. the electrical theory gets a little more involved, like you actually need to understand what impedance is and some basic antenna theory, not just memorize that dipoles are a half wavelength. i used HamStudy dot org and just drilled the question pool every day for like two weeks and passed no problem. the propagation questions tripped me up at first but once it clicks it clicks.

as for extra vs general, i'd say just do general first, get on HF, mess around for a while and see if you even like it before cramming for extra. the extra exam is noticeably harder and the additional band segments you get arent huge, most of what youll want to do is already available to general. plenty of people have been general class for years and are perfectly happy with it. get the ticket first then decide

honestly same boat as you were like 6 months ago lol, i just passed my general last month. the exam has some stuff about operating procedures and band plans that i didnt expect, like knowing which portions of which bands you can use and all that. worth actually reading through the band plan for HF before the test. also there was more math than the tech exam but nothing you need a calculator for, just ratios and basic stuff. took me maybe 3 weeks of casual studying.

one thing i wasnt expecting is after you pass you can start using HF privileges right away once the license shows up in the FCC database, you dont have to wait for a physical card or anything. so that was cool. now i just need to actually buy a radio haha