ok so i just upgraded to general last month and im still trying to wrap my head around where i can actually transmit. i know there are the FCC allocations and then there's like the "gentlemans agreement" band plan stuff that isnt actually law but everyone follows anyway? at least thats what someone at my club told me.

specifically on 40 meters im seeing different things in different places. like the ARRL band plan shows phone starting at 7.175 but i've also heard people say you can technically go down to 7.125 as a general for phone. and then theres the whole thing about staying away from the band edges which i dont fully understand either. is it just because of splatter or is there some actual rule about it

also what happens if you transmit like right at 7.300 which i think is the upper edge? does the signal just get cut off or what. sorry if this is a dumb question im just trying to not step on anyone or do something illegal

not a dumb question at all, this trips up a lot of new generals. ok so the FCC part 97 allocations are the actual legal limits — for general on 40m phone that's 7.175 to 7.300 MHz. that 7.125 number you might be seeing is the technician/novice CW limit from way back, dont worry about that for phone.

the band plan stuff the ARRL publishes is basically a gentlemens agreement yeah, nobody enforces it but its good practice and people will definitely say something on the air if they think youre operating somewhere weird. like the lower part of 40m tends to be CW territory even though technically a general can run phone above 7.175.

as for band edges — the issue is your signal isnt a single point on the dial. if youre running SSB and you set your VFO to 7.300 your actual transmitted signal is spreading a few kHz depending on your audio, so you could easily be going out of band without realizing it. most people stay at least 3-5 kHz inside the edge to be safe. your radio wont stop you or anything, you'd just be violating part 97 which is obviously not great.

yeah what he said. i'll just add that 40m can get pretty crowded especially in the evenings and the "unofficial" band plans kind of exist because otherwise it would just be chaos with CW and phone all mixed together. so even if you technically can operate phone at 7.150 as a general, you probably dont want to because you'll be right in the middle of a CW pileup and everyone will hate you lol.

the band edge thing burned me once when i was new, i was sitting on 7.298 thinking i was fine and someone pointed out my upper sideband audio was definitely poking past 7.300. just stay a few kHz inside and you wont have to think about it.