The Technician license gets you on the air. The General license gets you on HF — and that's a completely different radio experience. Forty meters on a quiet evening to Japan. Twenty meters on a Sunday morning to Europe. FT8 contacts on every continent from a wire antenna in your backyard. This is what most new hams discover they were actually looking for.
The honest answer on difficulty: General is not much harder than Technician. The pool is 35 questions from about 450, pass 26. The material goes deeper into HF operating practices, more electronics, and some additional FCC rules — but the same study approach that worked for Technician works here.
What General actually unlocks
As a Technician you already have 10-meter voice and some Morse code on HF. General opens most of the rest:
Regional / Night HF
Strong regional coverage in the evening and overnight. Great for nets, traffic handling, and domestic contacts. FT8 on 80m works even when the band sounds quiet.
The workhorse band
The most used HF band. Works regionally during the day, continental and beyond at night. Reliable, busy, and forgiving with a modest antenna.
Worldwide DX
Open to Europe, Asia, and beyond during daylight hours. The DX band. Where most HF voice operation happens and where most rare countries are worked.
Sunspot-dependent DX
Excellent during solar cycle peaks. 10 and 15 meters can be spectacular — intercontinental on 5 watts is routine when the band is open. Quiet or dead when it's not.
What the General exam covers
The General pool has 35 exam questions drawn from about 450. The material adds:
- HF operating practices — propagation, modes, frequencies, call sign procedures, phone and CW etiquette
- More electronics — filters, amplifiers, feed lines, SWR, more about how receivers and transmitters work
- Additional FCC rules — the specific privileges for each license class, repeater rules, third-party traffic rules
- Electrical safety — tower work, grounding, RF exposure at higher power levels
If you've been operating on VHF/UHF for a while after your Technician, some of this will feel familiar in practice. The operating practices section rewards people who have actually gotten on the air.
How to study
The same approach that worked for Technician works here: drill the question pool. The General pool is larger (~450 questions vs. ~400 for Technician) but the same methodology applies. Use our free study tool — it covers the General pool too — or HamStudy.org.
The main difference from Technician: the electronics material is a step up. Ohm's law and basic circuit math from Technician extends into filter design, transmission line theory, and more complex circuit analysis. If that section slows you down, don't get stuck — learn what you need to pass the exam, then go deeper once you're operating. A lot of the theory makes more sense once you're tuning antennas and adjusting equipment in practice.
Study timeline
Most Technicians who study consistently are ready for General within 3–6 weeks at about 30 minutes a day. People who've been actively operating on VHF/UHF tend to move faster because the operating sections click immediately. The electronics sections take more time for most people.
What to buy when you pass
Your Technician gear still works — you keep everything you have. The General upgrade adds HF operating capability, which means you'll eventually want an HF transceiver. The most common path:
- Entry: Xiegu G90 (~$430) — 20W, built-in tuner, real waterfall display. Pair it with an end-fed half-wave wire antenna and a short coax run.
- Benchmark: Icom IC-7300 (~$1,000) — the radio experienced hams consistently point new Generals to. 100W, touchscreen, spectrum scope. Buy once.
From a first HF radio to field power to antennas — a practical narrative guide from licensed to on HF.
See the first shack guide