so ive been a Tech for about 8 months now and mostly just been doing local 2m stuff and a little APRS but everyone keeps telling me to get my General so i can get on HF. i looked at the question pool and honestly it seems kind of overwhelming, theres a lot of electrical stuff and regulations i dont really understand yet.

my main question i guess is how long did it take people to actually study for this and is there a good way to approach it or do you just kind of grind through the question pool until stuff sticks. i tried reading the ARRL handbook but it felt like a lot to take in all at once. also is the HF experience really that much different, like is it worth the effort to upgrade or am i overthinking this

honestly dont overthink it, the General exam isnt that bad if you already passed Tech. a lot of the question pool overlaps in terms of how they phrase stuff so youll recognize the format at least. i used HamStudy dot org for like 2-3 weeks, maybe 20 minutes a day on my lunch break, and passed with room to spare. the electrical theory questions look scary but theres really only so many of them and once you see the same ones repeated enough times the answers just kinda stick in your brain even if you dont fully understand the theory behind it.

as for whether HF is worth it -- yeah absolutely, its a completely different experience. working a station thats like 1500 miles away with just a wire antenna in your backyard is something you cant really replicate on VHF. 40 meters especially is pretty forgiving for newer HF ops and you can make contacts at basically any time of day. just get the license first and figure out the antenna situation later, thats what everyone does anyway

I took me about three weeks of using the question pool flashcards on that ham study site and i passed. the band plan stuff and the regulations tripped me up more than the math honestly. just focus on the questions you keep getting wrong and dont waste time on the ones you already know