so ive been a Tech for about two years now mostly doing 2m and some 70cm stuff, got into APRS a while back which i really enjoyed but honestly ive been feeling kind of limited lately. a buddy at the club keeps telling me to just go get my General already and get on HF but i keep putting it off because the exam looks way more intimidating than the Tech one was

i grabbed the ARRL General Class manual from the library but its pretty dense and im not sure if im supposed to just read the whole thing or if theres a smarter way to go about it. like do people actually study the whole book or do most people just grind the question pool? i remember for Tech i mostly just used HamStudy and passed fine but i dont know if thats enough for General or if the material is actually harder to understand

also not totally sure what privileges im actually gonna get when i pass, i know its like 40 meters and stuff but i dont really have a good sense of what bands and what portions of them open up. anyone been through this recently and have advice on how long it took them or whats the best approach

honestly just do the question pool, same as Tech. HamStudy works fine for General too, maybe spend 2-3 weeks on it if youre doing like 20-30 minutes a day. the material isnt dramatically harder, theres more math-ish stuff around things like impedance and feed lines but if you just learn why the answers are what they are rather than memorizing blind youll retain it better and actually understand your radio later

as for privileges, the short version is you get big chunks of 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters which is where most of the interesting HF action happens. there are portions reserved for Extra class but honestly as a General youll have more than enough room to operate and find contacts. 40m at night is a good place to start once you pass, pretty active and you can work stations pretty far out even with modest power and a wire antenna

dont overthink it, you passed Tech, General is doable. the exam session at most clubs is pretty low pressure

I went through this like 8 months ago, was a Tech for almost 3 years before I finally just signed up for the test to force myself to actually study. Used HamStudy mostly and read maybe the first few chapters of the ARRL book to get some context on propagation since that was the part that felt totally foreign to me coming from VHF. Took me probably 3 weeks of casual studying and passed with only 2 wrong I think.

The HF privileges thing kind of clicked for me once I actually got on the air. 40 meters especially just feels different from anything on VHF, like you put out a call and someone in a completely different state or even another country just answers, its kind of wild the first time it happens. Dont stress too much about the exam, just take it