so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and mostly just do local repeaters and some APRS stuff but i keep hearing people talk about HF and honestly it sounds pretty cool. a guy at my club last month was working some DX on 20 meters and i just stood there like an idiot not really knowing what was going on lol

anyway i started looking at the General exam pool and it seems like a LOT. like way more than the tech exam felt. theres stuff in there about propagation and operating practices and some electrical theory that i honestly dont remember from the tech exam at all. im not dumb but i also havent done math since high school so some of the formula stuff is making me nervous

is it actually as hard as it looks or does it kind of click once you get into it? i downloaded the ARRL study guide pdf from somewhere but havent really cracked it open yet. just wondering if anyone went through this recently and what helped them most

honestly the General isnt that bad once you sit down with it. i upgraded maybe 8 months ago and was in the same spot as you, tech for a couple years just doing VHF stuff. the math looks scary but there really isnt that much of it and most of it is the same ohms law stuff from tech just applied slightly differently. HamStudy.org is what got me through it, i just did like 20-30 practice questions a night for maybe 3 weeks and by the time i took the exam i was consistently hitting 85-90% on the practice tests so i felt pretty good going in

the propagation stuff is actually kinda interesting once it starts making sense, like why 40 meters works great at night but 10 meters goes dead and then suddenly opens up. you'll start to care about the solar flux index way more than you expected to. passed with a 30/35 i think, wasnt perfect but you dont need perfect

just took mine like 6 weeks ago so this is fresh. the band plan stuff tripped me up more than the theory honestly, like knowing exactly which portions of which bands you get as a General vs Extra vs whatever. there are a few questions that are basically just memorization. the electrical theory i just kind of brute forced by doing practice tests over and over until i recognized the answers, didnt fully understand all of it but got through fine

one thing -- once you pass get on HF as fast as you can even if your setup is rough. i literally strung a wire out my window the same weekend and made my first contact on 40m ssb and it was kind of a big deal for me personally. dont wait until you have the perfect antenna or rig because that day never comes