so ive had my Technician license for about two years now and honestly i kind of just stalled out on VHF/UHF stuff. did a lot of APRS, some local repeater stuff, but i keep hearing guys on the club net talking about 40m and 20m contacts and it sounds way more interesting than what im doing now.

anyway i started looking at the General class exam and im not gonna lie some of the question pool looks pretty intimidating. like the electrical theory sections and the propagation stuff... i get some of it but some of it feels like i'd have to actually understand it rather than just memorize it. is that true or can you mostly just grind through the question pool and pass? i used HamStudy for my Tech exam and it worked fine but i dont know if thats still the approach people use for General.

also not even sure what HF privileges i'd actually get with General vs what Extra gets you. somebody told me Extra opens up more of the bands but i dont really know the specifics. is it worth just going straight for Extra or does that take way longer to study for

honestly the General pool isnt that bad. i was in the same spot, had my Tech for like three years doing mostly 2m stuff and finally sat down and did it. HamStudy still works great for it, just do the practice exams over and over until youre consistently hitting 85-90% and youll be fine. some of the electrical theory you dont really need to deeply understand, you just kinda recognize the right answer after seeing it enough times. the propagation questions are actually kind of interesting once it clicks.

as for Extra vs General, General gets you a really solid chunk of each HF band. like on 40 meters you get most of the phone portion and honestly for a new HF operator youre not going to feel cramped at all. Extra opens up a little more on each band but its not like youre locked out of anything fun with General. i'd say get your General, get on HF, mess around for a few months, then decide if Extra is worth chasing. jumping straight to Extra from Tech without any HF experience is doable but the question pool is noticeably harder and some of it makes more sense once you've actually been operating.

went through this exact same thing last spring. the part that tripped me up wasnt the theory so much as the operating procedures and band plan stuff, theres just a lot of little details to remember. give yourself like 3-4 weeks of casual studying and you should be good. one thing i'd add is that once you pass General and actually get on 40m for the first time it kind of rekindles everything about the hobby, at least it did for me. first time i heard a station in europe come back to my call i was just sitting there kind of stunned lol