so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now, my neighbor has a big antenna setup and we got to talking and now im kind of obsessed with the idea of getting into it. he mentioned i need a license first obviously but i dont really know where to start. like do i just show up somewhere and take a test or is there a class or something? and how hard is the technician exam actually, ive seen some people say its easy and some say theres a lot of memorization involved. i work full time so i cant really dedicate a ton of time to studying but im willing to put in a few weeks if thats what it takes. any advice would be appreciated, sorry if this is a dumb question

not a dumb question at all, everyone starts somewhere. honestly the technician exam isnt bad if you use the right resources. hamstudy.org is probably the best free tool out there, it pulls from the actual question pool and tracks which questions you're getting wrong so you can focus on those. the pool is like 400 something questions but the test is only 35 so you dont need to memorize every single detail, just get comfortable with the material and you'll be fine.

for finding a test session just go to arrl.org and look up exam sessions near you, most VE teams do them pretty regularly and some are even online now through remote testing which is convenient if you dont want to drive far. whole thing cost me like 15 bucks when i took it. give yourself 2-3 weeks of casual studying and you should be good honestly.

I passed mine last spring and was kind of in the same boat, didn't know anyone in the hobby and just kind of stumbled into it. I used the Gordon West study book which some people swear by and some people hate, but it worked for me because it actually explains the why behind stuff instead of just drilling questions. though I did use hamstudy on my phone during lunch breaks too so probably a combination of both.

one thing I wish someone told me before the test - the math questions look scarier than they are. Ohm's law stuff, decibels, there's really only a handful of formulas and if you do the practice questions enough times they start to click. don't stress about understanding every concept perfectly, the test is multiple choice and the wrong answers are usually pretty obviously wrong once you've seen the material a couple times