ok so i just upgraded to general last month and im trying to figure out where i can actually transmit on 40 meters. i looked up the FCC part 97 stuff and also the ARRL band plan and they dont totally match up and now im more confused than before lol

like i know generals get 7.175 to 7.300 for phone but then i see people say dont operate right at the band edge and i dont really understand why. is 7.300 off limits or what? and whats the deal with the lower part of the band, i see CW down there but someone told me digital modes are in there too. just trying to figure out where i can actually park without stepping on someone or doing something wrong

yeah this trips up a lot of newly upgraded generals, dont feel bad. the short version is your phone privelege on 40 starts at 7.175 MHz and goes up to 7.300 which is the band edge. the reason everyone says stay away from the band edge is that your signal has sidebands — if youre running SSB and you park right on 7.300 your upper sideband content is going to spill above the allocation and thats technically out of band. most people say stay at least 3 kHz inside the edge to be safe, so like 7.297 or lower to be comfortable.

the lower part of 40 from 7.000 to 7.125 is CW only for US generals, and 7.100 to 7.125 you share with extra class on CW. digital modes like FT8 and JS8 tend to hang out around 7.074 which is within the CW segment but the FCC allows data/digital in there too so thats fine. the ARRL band plan is kind of a gentlemans agreement on top of what the FCC actually mandates, so if something is in the band plan but not in part 97 its more of a courtesy thing than a rule. but most people follow it anyway to keep things organized

one thing that helped me when i was figuring this out — just download the ARRL band plan PDF and keep it next to the radio for a while. after a few weeks you kind of just know where everything is without thinking about it. also if you have a rig with a spectrum display you start to see where the activity actually clusters and that gives you a feel for it pretty fast

the band edge thing is real though, had a guy at our club who was running USB right at 7.300 and his audio was apparently going above the limit. nobody said anything to him on air but somebody did check with a SDR and yeah it wasnt pretty. just give yourself some room and youll be fine