Amateur Radio HF

For the past few years I had my Technician class license for ham radio. Basically you are limited to transmitting on the UHF and VHF frequencies. After searching around I found that it's more interesting to find contacts in distance areas instead of local. So now I'm studying for my General class license which will give me access to the HF frequencies and able to talk much further than with VHF or UHF.

Here's a link with more details of each license and their benefits.

http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/classes.html

What do I want to do once I receive the General class license?

Basically have a HF radio set up were I can go anywhere and talk with people from longer distances, without the use of a repeater (a device that repeats a VHF or UHF radio signal to have further range). Such as this example of a hiker taking out his radio during a day on a local trail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV9iJIa5feo

If you are interested in learning how to pass your amateur license tests I highly recommend going to this site which offers great practice tests.

http://www.hamtestonline.com