so ive been a Tech for about a year and a half now and mostly just been doing local VHF/UHF stuff, some APRS, helped out with a couple ARES nets. but lately ive been really curious about HF and everyone keeps telling me to just go upgrade already. my question is basically how hard is the General exam compared to Tech? i remember the Tech exam being not too bad but i also studied for like 3 weeks. im mostly worried about the electronics theory stuff and the regulations questions because ive heard those can be tricky. also does it matter which study guide i use or is the HamStudy website thing enough? i dont really have a lot of time to sit down with a book right now with work being crazy but i want to get this done before summer so i can actually use HF when propagation is decent

honestly the General exam is not that much harder than Tech, maybe slightly more involved on the theory side but nothing crazy. i used HamStudy exclusively and passed first try, just did like 15-20 minutes on my phone whenever i had a spare moment, lunch breaks commuting whatever. the question pool isnt enormous and once youve seen most of the questions a few times it starts clicking. the regs stuff i actually found easier than expected because a lot of it is just common sense once you understand the band plan. the electronics questions like the reactance and impedance ones tripped me up at first but there are only so many of them and the math is not that brutal if you just memorize the formulas. give yourself like 3-4 weeks and youll be fine, especially if you already passed Tech without too much trouble

yeah what the other person said, HamStudy is totally fine. i didnt use anything else. one thing id add though is dont just grind questions without understanding WHY the answers are right, especially for the band privileges stuff because thats actually useful to know when you get on HF so you dont accidentally transmit somewhere you shouldnt be. made that mistake once early on, thankfully someone politely pointed it out on the air. also once you pass and get your General ticket, 40 meters is a great place to start if you want to make contacts, its usually pretty active and propagation is decent even when the bands arent cooperating on 20. good luck with it