so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and i finally decided to just go for it and upgrade to general. bought the gordon west book and been going through it but honestly some of this stuff is... a lot. the electrical theory stuff i kind of remember from school but propagation and all the band plan stuff is new to me and i feel like there's just so much to memorize

my actual question is like, what should i actually focus on vs what can i kind of skim. i know some people say just do the question pool over and over and youll be fine but that feels like cheating somehow? also is there stuff on the exam that trips people up that isnt obvious from just reading the book. i've heard the math questions for impedance and stuff can be rough if youre not expecting them

also side question -- once i actually get the general ticket what HF stuff can i realistically do without spending a ton on gear right away, i have a basic HF rig already (borrowed from a club friend) so i'm not starting totally from scratch

honestly the question pool method works, dont feel weird about it. thats basically how everyone does it. the pool is public and the exam pulls straight from it so if you can answer every question in the pool you will pass, full stop. ham study dot org has a free practice exam simulator that randomizes them and it tells you which sections you're weak on which is super helpful

for what actually trips people up -- the math isnt as bad as it sounds because theres really only a handful of formulas and the numbers in the answer choices are usually pretty distinct so even if you half remember how to do it you can eliminate wrong answers. reactance and the decibel stuff is where people get weird. just memorize that every 3db is double or half the power and every 10db is 10x, that covers like 80 percent of those questions right there

propagation is honestly interesting once it clicks. 40m for regional stuff at night, 20m for the daytime DX, 10m when conditions are good which they actually are right now with the solar cycle being where it is. once you get the ticket just get on 40m in the evenings and start listening, youll learn more in a week of actual operating than from any book

i just passed mine like 6 weeks ago coming from tech so pretty fresh on this. the stuff that got me was the operating procedures section weirdly, like i figured id know that from just being on the air but there were some questions about third party traffic and station ID rules that i had to actually look up. also a couple questions about emission types and what modes are allowed where that i totally blanked on during practice

the impedance math i was dreading and it ended up being fine, just know ohms law and how to find resonance frequency and youre probably covered for most of it. i used ham study and did probably 400 practice questions over a few weeks and felt pretty solid going in, scored an 88 which i was happy with

as for HF without spending much -- 40 meters is your friend seriously. even a simple wire dipole which costs almost nothing will get you on the air and youll be shocked how far you can work with it