so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and i finally decided to go for general. i bought the gordon west book a few weeks ago and started going through it but honestly some of this stuff is really dense and i dont know if im studying the right things or just wasting time on topics that barely show up on the exam

like the electrical theory sections, how deep do i actually need to go on that? i can do the basic ohms law stuff but when it gets into reactance and impedance calculations i start glazing over. and then theres the operating procedures and band plans which seem more straightforward but there are SO many little details

also kind of a separate question, once i actually pass and get HF privileges, what should i even do first? ive heard 40m is a good starting point but i dont really have an HF rig yet and i dont know if my current antenna situation would even work (apartment, 3rd floor, HOA would lose their minds if i put anything on the roof)

anyway any advice on the exam prep side would be helpful, im planning to take it in maybe 6-8 weeks

for the exam honestly just hammer the question pool. HamStudy.org or whatever app you prefer, just do practice tests over and over until you're consistently hitting 85%+ and you'll be fine. the gordon west book is decent background but the actual exam questions are finite and you can just learn them. the math questions tend to intimidate people but theres only a handful of them and if you know the formulas you can usually back-calculate the answer even if you dont fully understand why it works that way

the reactance stuff is worth understanding at least a little because it actually matters when you start messing with antennas on HF, but for passing the test you dont need to go super deep, just know the basic relationships

as for the apartment situation, look into magnetic loop antennas or even just a random wire run inside if you have high ceilings. ive talked to guys running indoor loops from apartments that were actually making contacts, not great DX but it works. also 40m in the evening is genuinely where i'd start if you want to actually hear people talking, the band is usually pretty alive around 7.200 and nearby depending on conditions

same boat as you were like 8 months ago lol. passed general last spring and the thing that got me over the line was just doing the practice tests on repeat, like i did probably 40-50 full practice exams in the last two weeks before i sat for it. the question pool isnt that huge and stuff starts repeating and you just kind of absorb it

dont stress too much about fully understanding everything, some of it clicks more after you actually get on HF and start doing stuff. the regulations section tripped me up more than the theory honestly, theres some weird little rules in there that dont come up very often but they love to test on them

and yeah apartment life with HF is rough, im in a similar situation, i ended up getting a magnetic loop that i can set up inside near a window and its surprisingly usable on 20 and 40m. not ideal but it gets you on the air which is the point