ok so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now mostly because my neighbor does it and it seems really cool but i have no idea where to start with the whole license thing. i know theres different levels or classes or whatever but i dont really understand the difference between them or which one i should go for first. do i need to know morse code? someone told me you dont anymore but i wasnt sure if that was still true. also how hard is the test actually, like is it something i can study for in a few weeks or does it take months. any advice would be great im kind of just lost here

yeah no morse code requirement anymore, that went away back in 2007 so youre good there. the technician license is definitely where everyone starts, its the entry level one and honestly the test isnt that bad at all. the question pool is publicly available which is kind of a big deal because that means you can literally study the exact questions that will be on the exam. i used hamstudy.org and just did practice tests every night for maybe two or three weeks and passed no problem. some people knock it out in a weekend if theyre motivated. the tech license gets you all the VHF and UHF privileges which is plenty to get started, most people do local repeaters and stuff like that. once you pass that if you want HF and more frequencies you go for general class but thats a whole separate test. just start with tech though, dont overwhelm yourself

i just got my tech about 4 months ago so i was in the exact same spot as you not that long ago. i used the ARRL ham radio license manual which is the big book thing and also hamstudy like the other guy said. the book is good if you actually want to understand why the answers are what they are instead of just memorizing, which i think helped me remember stuff better. the exam itself is 35 questions and you need 26 right to pass. find a local club because they usually hold testing sessions pretty regularly and some of them do free exam prep sessions too which i wish i had known about before i just showed up cold to a session. good luck with it