so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now, like probably two years of just watching youtube videos and reading stuff online but never actually doing anything about it. my neighbor has a big antenna setup in his backyard and we got to talking a few weeks ago and he said i should just go ahead and take the technician test already. thing is i dont really know where to start with studying. i looked at the arrl website for a few minutes but theres so much stuff there i kind of closed the tab and gave up lol. is there like a specific book or website people actually use to pass the tech exam? also how hard is it really, im decent with electronics but not like an engineer or anything. and do i have to memorize the whole question pool or what

honestly the tech exam is way more approachable than it looks. i was in the same boat last year, felt totally overwhelmed at first. what actually worked for me was just using hamstudy.org every day for like two or three weeks, maybe 20 minutes a day while eating lunch or whatever. it pulls from the real question pool and tracks which ones you keep getting wrong so you can focus on those. the questions on the actual exam are pulled directly from that pool so nothing is going to surprise you if you use that site enough. theres some electrical stuff that looks scary at first but honestly a lot of it you can just kind of learn the pattern for the answer without fully understanding the underlying theory, at least for the tech level. for the actual test day just find a local club doing a session, some of them are even doing remote exams online now which is nice if you dont want to drive somewhere. you need a 74% to pass which is 26 out of 35 questions i think, so you have some room to miss a few.

hamstudy is fine but i'd also say dont overlook just grabbing the arrl technician manual if you actually want to understand what youre doing and not just pass a test. the pool-drilling approach works and plenty of people do it that way but then they get on the air and dont know why their swr is high or whatever. that said if you just want to get the ticket first and learn the rest later thats a totally valid approach too, plenty of hams do it that way. your neighbor sounds like he could be a good elmer for you once you pass, having somebody local whos actually licensed and can show you the ropes is honestly worth more than any book. one thing i'd say is dont stress too much about the exam itself, ive helped proctor a bunch of these sessions and most people who put in even a couple weeks of studying pass no problem the first time.