David Brown

honestly the theory is not as bad as people make it out to be once you sit down with it. yeah there are questions about things like pi network matching and reactance calculations that look scary on paper but a lot of it clicks if you just watch a few youtube videos on the subject rather than trying to read through a dry textbook. i used the HamStudy app for like three weeks and passed no problem. the math questions that actually require calculating something are pretty rare and they tend to repeat, so once you drill those a dozen times you just remember the answer anyway. as for the privileges being worth it on HF, absolutely yes in my opinion. getting access to those extra portions of 75, 40, and 20 especially is great when things get crowded. during a contest weekend youll notice real fast how packed the General segments get. took me a while to appreciate it but now i use those Extra-only segments pretty regularly.

ok so i just passed my technician exam last month and ive been reading through the FCC part 97 rules trying to figure out what bands i actually have access to on HF and its honestly kind of confusing. like i understand i get full privileges on 2m and 70cm and stuff but the HF situation is weird. i know techs get some HF but i cant tell if its just CW or if i can actually do voice on 10 meters or what. and then theres the question of power limits, does the 200w limit apply everywhere or just certain bands or is that only for certain modes. ive been trying to cross reference a few different websites and they all say slightly different things which doesnt help. just want to make sure i dont accidentally transmit somewhere i shouldnt while im still figuring all this out

the question pool being public is totally fine and legal, thats just how amateur radio licensing works in the US, the pool gets updated every few years and the actual exam questions come straight from it so yeah memorizing answers does work. that said i get what you mean about wanting to understand it. what i did was use hamstudy.org which is free and it shows you the questions in a kind of flashcard style but it also tracks which ones you keep getting wrong so you can focus on those. the electrical theory on the tech exam is honestly pretty basic, ohms law and some basic antenna stuff, nothing too crazy. gordon west is fine but i found the hamstudy site faster for actually retaining things. give yourself like 2-3 weeks of 20 minutes a day and you'll be fine, the test really isnt that hard

the tension thing is super common and honestly took me a couple years to really get past. what helped me most was slowing way down and just practicing squeeze keying without actually transmitting, like just listening to the sidetone at maybe 12 wpm until my hand found a relaxed position naturally. when you're straining to keep up with the speed your hand compensates by gripping harder which just makes everything worse on the Begali specifically the gap adjustment is pretty touchy. if the contacts are too far apart you end up having to travel too much which makes your muscles work harder. try tightening the gap just a little more than you think you need and see if that helps. also for what its worth i dont like iambic mode B for most casual operating, mode A feels a bit more forgiving to me when im not perfectly squeezing. worth trying both and seeing which one clicks for you