so ive been a tech for about 8 months now and honestly i mostly just use my HT for local stuff and the occasional APRS but ive been listening to 40m on my friend's radio and now i really want to get on HF. everyone keeps saying general is the obvious next step but i looked at the question pool and it seems like theres a lot of stuff i dont really know yet, like the electrical theory questions and the band plan stuff is kind of overwhelming at first glance.

i guess my question is how long did it take you guys to feel ready and is there like a good way to study or do most people just grind the question pool until they memorize it. also is it worth actually learning the material versus just passing the test because i want to actually understand what im doing when i get on HF, not just have the license and be lost

honestly its not that bad once you sit down with it. i used hamStudy.org pretty much every day for like 3 weeks, maybe 20-30 minutes a session, and i passed with only a couple wrong. the electrical theory stuff sounds scarier than it is, you dont need to derive anything from scratch, you just need to recognize the formulas and know when to apply them. ohms law, power calculations, that kind of thing.

the band privileges section is actually really useful to just learn properly because once youre on HF you really do need to know where you can and cant operate depending on your license class. i'd say do both - use the question pool to pass but actually read the ARRL general class book or whatever study guide alongside it so it clicks. took me about a month of casual studying and i felt pretty solid going in. the test itself was way less stressful than my tech exam weirdly enough because i was more prepared this time around

passed mine like two weeks ago so this is fresh lol. i just did the practice tests on qrz and repeated them until i was consistently hitting 85% or above and then went and took it. took me maybe 2.5 weeks. some of the propagation questions tripped me up at first but once you get the basic idea of how the ionosphere works it starts to make sense. 40m at night, 20m during the day, that kind of mental model helps.

now im trying to figure out what antenna to put up because thats the next problem, living in an HOA situation which is a whole other nightmare