so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and mostly just messed around on 2m and some 70cm stuff, did a little satellite which was cool but honestly i keep hearing people talk about HF and it sounds way more interesting. finally decided im gonna just go for the general ticket but i dont really know what to expect compared to the tech exam.

the tech test felt pretty straightforward once i went through the question pool a few times but i heard general is harder? or is it just more of the same kind of thing. i guess my main worry is all the band plan stuff and propagation because i never really had to think about that as a tech. also not sure if i need to actually understand everything or if just grinding the question pool is enough to pass. any advice from people who went through this recently would be helpful

honestly the general pool isnt that bad once you sit down with it. i upgraded maybe 8 months ago after being a tech for like 3 years and the jump felt bigger in my head than it actually was. the propagation questions sound intimidating but once you get the basic idea of how the ionosphere works and why certain bands open at certain times it kind of clicks and makes studying way more interesting anyway.

i used the hamstudy.org website which just drills you on random questions and shows you when youre getting stuff consistently right. took me maybe 3 weeks of casual studying, like 20 minutes a day while eating breakfast or whatever. the band privileges section is probably the most tedious part just because theres a lot to memorize but there are some good charts floating around online that help. and yeah you can pass by just grinding the pool but if you actually want to enjoy HF once you have the ticket its worth understanding at least a little of the why behind things

just passed my general last month so this is fresh for me. the electrical theory questions tripped me up a bit, like the stuff about impedance and reactance, i had to actually look some of that up on youtube to understand it rather than just memorize the answer. everything else was pretty much like you said, just repetition. good luck with it, HF is a whole different world compared to VHF, already worked like 30 countries on 20m just with a wire in the backyard