so i've been interested in ham radio for a while now, my neighbor has a big antenna setup and it got me curious. i looked it up and apparently you have to take a test? i dont really know where to start or what the difference is between all the license levels. someone at work mentioned technician and general but i have no idea what that means practically speaking. like do i need to buy a radio first or study first, and how hard is the test actually? i feel like i'm going in circles just reading stuff online because half of it seems outdated. any advice would be appreciated

welcome to the rabbit hole haha. okay so the technician is where everyone starts, you dont need the general or extra until you want HF privileges which is the longer range stuff. the tech exam is 35 questions multiple choice and honestly its not that bad if you use hamstudy.org, just grind the question pool for a week or two and youll be fine. the questions repeat a lot. dont bother buying a radio until after you pass, mostly because once you're studying you'll figure out what bands interest you and that changes what you'd want anyway. find a local club too, a lot of them do free license classes and the elmers there can answer stuff way faster than googling. the ARRL has a technician manual but some people find it overkill just to pass the test

yeah hamstudy is what i used, passed on my first try with like 10 days of studying mostly on my phone during lunch. the electrical theory questions tripped me up at first but theres not that many of them and if you just memorize the answers for the ones you dont understand the concepts its fine for passing. honestly the hardest part for me was finding a test session nearby, check the ARRL exam search or sometimes local clubs post them on facebook. some places do online testing now through groups like GLAARG or Laurel which is convenient if you're not near a club