so ive been a Tech for about 8 months now and mostly just been messing around on 2m and 70cm, did a little APRS stuff too. but ive been reading about HF and honestly it sounds way more interesting, like actually talking to people in other states or other countries and not just hitting the local repeater which has like 4 people on it regularly lol

my question is how hard is the General exam compared to Tech. i remember the Tech exam wasnt too bad but i also studied pretty hard for it. someone at the club mentioned the General has a lot more electronics theory which kind of scares me a bit because im not an engineer or anything, just a regular guy who likes the hobby. is there a good way to study without getting too deep into the math or is the math unavoidable

also once i pass, what do i actually need to get started on HF, like do i need a totally different radio or can some of the cheaper all band rigs work ok for just getting started

the General exam honestly isnt that bad if you use HamStudy or the ARRL pool and just grind the questions. theres some math but its not like you need to derive anything, most of it is just knowing which formula to apply and even then a lot of people just memorize the answer patterns since its a pool of like 400ish questions. i was scared of the electronics theory too but once you see the same questions repeated you start to get it.

took me about 3 weeks of maybe 20-30 minutes a day and i passed with room to spare. the trickier parts for me were the operating procedures and the band plan stuff, i kept mixing up which frequencies were available to General vs Extra on like 40 and 75 meters. just make sure you know those privileges cold because that comes up a few times on the test.

for HF radio, honestly a used Icom 718 or a Yaesu FT-450D or something like that off of QRZ classifieds is a solid way to start without spending a fortune. you dont need to go crazy on the first rig, just get something that works and get on the air and figure out what you actually want later.

i just upgraded like two months ago so same boat as you pretty much. the math stuff looks scarier than it is, most of the questions i saw were stuff like ohms law or figuring out resonant frequency and there are really only a handful of formulas you need. i just wrote them on a notecard and drilled them.

one thing that tripped me up was the rules and regs section, theres some overlap with Tech but also new stuff about third party traffic and foreign stations and i kind of glossed over that the first time through. worth paying attention to.

havent bought an HF rig yet myself, still saving up, but everyone seems to point beginners toward the 718 or maybe a Xiegu G90 if budget is tight. heard mixed things about the cheaper chinese stuff but some people swear by it