so ive been a tech for about 8 months now and honestly i mostly just use my HT for the local repeater and some simplex stuff but lately ive been really curious about HF and everyone keeps telling me to just go get my general already. my question is how different is the material from the tech exam because that one felt pretty manageable to me, like i studied the question pool for maybe 2 weeks and passed no problem. is the general more of the same or is there like a big jump in difficulty? also i keep hearing about 40 meters being good for beginners once you have HF privileges, is that true? i dont have an HF rig yet obviously but im trying to figure out if its worth the effort before i invest in equipment. any advice would be appreciated, ive been kind of going back and forth on this for a while now

honestly the general pool isnt that much harder than tech, just more of it. theres a bit more math involved like some ohms law stuff and a few questions about propagation that tripped me up at first but nothing crazy. i used hamstudystudy.com or whatever that site is called and just drilled questions every night for like 3 weeks and passed on my first try. the electrical principles section is probably where people struggle most if they dont have any background in that stuff, but even then if you just memorize the answers youll be fine for the exam. and yeah 40m is genuinely great for new HF operators, especially in the evenings. you can work stations pretty far out without needing a huge antenna setup which is nice when youre just starting out

go take it, seriously. i waited way too long after getting my tech and i kick myself for it because HF opened up a completely different side of the hobby for me. the exam itself is fine, maybe a step up from tech but not dramatically so. what nobody tells you though is that passing the exam is actually the easy part, once you have your general you still gotta figure out antennas and propagation and all that and thats where the real learning curve is. 40m is solid advice for starting out, 20m too depending on the time of day and where the bands are at. if you can put up even a basic wire dipole you'll be surprised what you can work. dont overthink the exam, just study the pool and go do it