EVE New Citizens Q&A

Your experience sounds about right. A 4/10 is more or less intended for battlecruisers; frankly I'm surprised your frigate didn't get murdered in the first room. You mayyy be able to do a 3/10 in a frigate -- it depends which one. The rogue drone asteroid infestation is really easy (but generally has crappy loot). OTOH the Sansha Command Relay Outpost or Serpentis Narcotics Warehouses will be a bit tougher, but you might get through them even though they are intended for cruisers.

Wormholes are not indended for low SP frigates. The sleepers will tear you a new one and there are no unguarded sites.

Radar sites are honestly your best bet right now. You can make decent money from these for a low-SP pilot. Also, there are some unrated complexes (Hideout, Lookout) that are easy to do in a frigate and have a chance of escalating (and each stage of the escalation has a chance of spawning a faction rat with a chance of good loot).

You didn't mention in OP radar sites. Those can e good quick isk if you've got the hacking/salvaging skill for them. Pack along a decoder, an analyzer and a salvager for those. Can pick up the occasional decryptor worth 4-10M for 10min work.

Otherwise, as you say you're pretty on track.

As for wh's: you can pop in in a CovOps and sneak around for fun, but don't go into any sites. It can be fun to just zoom around cloaked...checking out POSs and people not know you're there.

Lowsec scanning can be similarly exciting as well as profitable...but obviously the gates can be more dangerous exciting.

KB

Yup, the money's there, it's just really hit and miss.

I've done my fair share of high sec exploration and it's quite fun and frustrating. As an older player the isk isn't really there compared to what I normally do for isk but for new people it adds that total control aspect with out limitations of a mission timer and etc (unless you get an escalation). You had mentioned WH's those are big bucks even the Class 1's and if you're up for that excitement I would recommend a higher class ship maybe a cruiser or battle cruiser. If you are serious about it stick with it train up the skills to boost scan probe strength and etc and soon you will be blowing through sites and making isk and fat lewts. For example my 1st ever low sec plex I got a True Sansha cruiser spawn dropped the LG Slave (the highes tier I think it's Charisma) I was so excited stashed it in high sec then 3-4 jumps later got probed out and podded (wasn't paying attn to directional for Comby Probes), still came out ahead thou just by getting the implant plus bounties. High Sec you'll still get the Fac Rats but the loot isn't that great (it does have a chance to drop but it's rare). Corp mate and I ran some High's not to long ago got a Drone Escalation and Sansha Escalation (Slave Breeder for Sansha and Mara something for drones) got an A-Type Thermic Plating (9 mil on contracts) something cheap for us but for an upstart it's a true prize esp a Therm Plate for a nice lil cruiser or frig :) So I say keep up the High Sec probing, train your skills, and don't give up. Any questions feel free to ask or convo me if you're around Amarr can give ya hand, I don't mind helping.

When exploring, don't just explore 1 system and then call it quits. Explore 5-10 systems, and do the radars in these. it's the quickest way a low-sp character can earn a nice amount of isk with very little investment. An imicus or probe works wonders here.

[Imicus, Cheap Explore]

Core Probe Launcher I (Sisters Core Scanner Probe)
Salvager I

Codebreaker I
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Small 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I

2x Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

3x Hobgoblin I

Posted this in the exploration and complexes as well, this fit should get you all set for high sec radars.
For combat sites, I'd recommend switching to a bigger ship.

Scanning is one of those things that you get better at with practice, and when it comes to exploration, the more sites you scan out the better your chances are of getting Phat Lewtz™, so the faster you can scan things down and ignore the chaff, the better :)

Since you're a new player in a Punisher I'd recommend Hideouts, Lookouts and 3/10s if the region you're in has any (which you can check on the wiki: DED Complex List), as well as any Radar sites.

I would ignore wormholes, drone sites, gravimetrics and Ladars. Magnetometric is up to you, personally I wouldn't do them outside of Blood Raider/Sansha space, and even then they're a last resort for me while in highsec.

Remember to salvage commander/overseer wrecks as they have the chance to drop T2 salvage.

If you're see yourself spending a lot of time doing Radar sites, remember raising your Hacking skill helps you open cans more quickly, so you can move on to the next can/site.

There are implants and rigs for scanning strength as well as ones to speed up hacking Radar cans, Magnetometric cans, and salvaging wrecks.

Since you're flying Amarr ships I'd recommend the Arbitrator over the Vexor as an eventual upgrade.

Lastly: the more sites you run, the better your odds are of getting good loot. I'd rather do 10 sites that each have a chance of a nice drop that 1 site that has a chance of a nicer drop. Best of luck and most of all, have fun o7

Ya I wish there was a filter for Grav sites to totally ignore them

Crap, I made a post and I can't delete it. sigh....

Ugh that text is very blurry in what ever form I download it in.