License
To legally do ham radio, you need to pass a test and obtain a license. It’s pretty easy. Just a few hours of studying and then you take a 15 minute test and you’re good.
Studying
I studied using: https://hamradioprep.com/
It costs like $35 for each license level. I found it to be totally worth it.
I just installed their phone app and studied that way. It’s really good because it knows which questions you’re struggling with and will help you with those ones in particular. It has lots of practice tests.
At first I was like oh, I’ll buy a book or oh I’ll do it on my computer. Honestly, just get the phone app and study like 15 minutes a day and you’ll be done in no time. It even will tell you when it thinks you’re ready for the test.
If you wanted to just pass the tech and general exams and weren’t worried about getting a perfect score, you could probably study for only like 6 hours or so and pass. I think I studied for like 10 or 12 hours and only missed like one question.
If you want a free option, a lot of people use this: https://hamstudy.org/
Honestly though, if you are looking for convenience with the phone app and all of that and videos to just make it super easy, I would go with the paid one I mentioned before.
Where to take an exam
I suggest just doing it over zoom. I used: https://glaarg.org/
If you do it online using zoom, then you can get an exam spot every week. They usually do exams every few days and you just register and choose when. I believe they’ll even let you retake it. Doing it this way is so much more convenient than doing it in person in my opinion. If you do it in person, depending on where you live, you might need to wait months. This way, you can just get going right away.