ok so i passed my technician exam like two months ago and ive been trying to figure out exactly what im allowed to do. i understand i have HF privileges on 10 meters and some other bands but every time i try to read Part 97 directly my eyes kind of glaze over because its written in such legal language. like i get the basic idea but the details trip me up.

specifically im confused about things like third party traffic, what counts as broadcasting, and whether i can like talk to a friend who has a CB radio or a GMRS radio if im on a linked repeater or something. also somebody at a hamfest told me technicians cant use certain digital modes on HF but i cant find where exactly that says that. is there a plain english version of all this somewhere or does everyone just kind of learn the rules as they go

yeah Part 97 is genuinely painful to read the first time, you're not alone there. the ARRL has a decent breakdown in their license manuals but honestly the best plain english version ive seen is on the ARRL website somewhere under the regulatory section, or just google "Part 97 plain english" and a few ham blogs come up that walk through the main points without all the federal register language.

on the third party thing — basically you can let an unlicensed person talk through your station to another amateur station in a country that has a third party agreement with the US. if the country doesnt have that agreement you generally cant do it. the list of countries is on the ARRL site too. as for talking to CB or GMRS folks, no, you cant do that, Part 97 is pretty clear that amateur stations can only communicate with other amateur stations except in emergencies. the one exception people sometimes bring up is RACES/ARES emergency comms but thats a whole other rabbit hole.

the digital modes thing on HF as a tech — i think your friend was half right. techs do have some HF privileges but theyre pretty limited, mostly CW on a few bands and a narrow phone/digital slice on 10 meters. so its not that techs cant use digital modes at all its more that the sliver of spectrum you have access to is pretty small.

im in basically the same boat passed my tech last year and the rules stuff confused me for a while. what helped me was just finding a local club and asking questions because reading the actual CFR is honestly rough. someone in my club printed out a one pager summary of tech privileges and that was way more useful than staring at the FCC website for an hour