so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now, my neighbor has a big antenna setup and it always looked cool to me. i started looking into it and theres like three different license levels and i dont really understand which one i should go for or if i have to do them in order. also whats the actual test like, is it multiple choice or do you have to know morse code or what. i downloaded some app called ham study or something but i dont know if thats actually good or if im just wasting time memorizing stuff that wont be on the test. any help would be appreciated, i feel like im going in circles looking this up online

yeah you pretty much have to go in order, Technician first then General then Extra, cant skip ahead. the good news is Technician is genuinely not that hard, i passed mine on the first try after maybe two weeks of using that HamStudy app you mentioned - its actually solid, dont second guess it. the test is 35 questions multiple choice and you need 26 right to pass. no morse code requirement anymore, they dropped that years ago. the pool of questions they pull from is public so what youre studying is literally what will be on the test, just maybe worded slightly different. find a local club and ask about a testing session, a lot of them do walk-in exams and its like 15 bucks. honestly the hardest part is just deciding to actually sit down and do it

i was in the exact same boat like 6 months ago lol. i used hamstudy.org on my laptop and also the Gordon West study book which my local library actually had. took me about 3 weeks studying maybe 20 minutes a day and i passed with a decent margin. one thing i wish someone told me - dont overthink the electrical theory questions, theres only so many of them and if you just do the practice tests enough times you kind of just start remembering the right answers even if you dont fully understand why. after i got my ticket i realized i wanted HF so i went back and did General like two months later, that ones a bit more involved but still doable