so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now, mostly because my neighbor has this huge antenna setup in his backyard and he was telling me about talking to people overseas and stuff. i guess i always thought it was this really complicated thing only retired engineers did but apparently thats not the case?

anyway i looked it up and there are different license levels and i honestly dont know which one to go for first or how hard the test is. like do i need to know a lot of math and electronics to pass the technician test or is it more memorization. i tried reading some stuff online but i couldnt tell if it was outdated or not. any advice from people who actually went through it recently would be helpful

honestly the technician test is pretty manageable, dont let anyone scare you off. the question pool is public so you literally know every possible question that could show up on the exam before you even walk in. hamstudy.org is where most people go now, you just drill the questions until you're consistently getting like 85% or better and you're probably good to go. there's 35 questions on the real test and you need to get 26 right.

there is some basic electronics stuff but it's not deep, like you're not solving circuit equations, more like knowing what an ohm is and which end of a diode is which. the regulations part trips more people up honestly because it's just a lot of memorization and some of it feels arbitrary until you've been doing it a while. i studied on and off for maybe 3 weeks before i passed and i had zero background in electronics at the time. just use the app on your phone when you have a few minutes here and there and you'll be fine.

i just passed mine like two months ago so this is fresh for me. i used the hamstudy site someone else probably already mentioned and also the ARRL technician manual which i got used off ebay for like 4 dollars. the book is good if you actually want to understand why things work but you can totally just memorize your way through the test without it.

one thing i wish someone told me - find a local club and see if they have a license class coming up. mine did a one day class on a saturday and then a test session right after and i just walked in knowing almost nothing and walked out licensed. the elmers there were super patient with dumb questions. just google your city plus amateur radio club and something will probably come up