ok so i passed my general a few months ago and ive been trying to figure out where i can actually transmit on 40 meters. i looked up the privileges chart on the arrl site and it says something like 7.175 to 7.300 for phone but then i also see people talking about band edges and how you shouldnt operate right at the edge because of splatter or something? and then theres the whole thing about the band plan which isnt the same as the actual allocations i guess? like the band plan is just a gentlemens agreement kind of thing?

also does the 7.175 mean i cant even listen below that or just cant transmit, because sometimes i tune around down lower and hear a lot of ssb activity especially at night. im probably overthinking this but i just dont want to accidentally transmit somewhere i shouldnt be or get yelled at on the air lol

yeah you've got the right idea basically. the allocation is the legal part — as a general you can transmit phone from 7.175 up to 7.300, everything below that on 40 is cw and digital only for you until you upgrade to extra. the band plan on top of that is just kind of a community convention, nobody's going to fine you for ignoring it but people might give you grief if you park an ssb signal in the middle of where everyone expects to find psk31 or whatever.

the band edge thing is real and worth paying attention to. if youre on usb and you set your rig to 7.175 your actual transmitted signal has sidebands that extend upward from there, so technically youre fine, but if you drift or your audio is wide you could end up with part of your signal below 7.175 which would be out of band. most people just stay a few khz inside the edge to give themselves some breathing room. 7.178 or so is pretty common for that reason. listening below your privileges is totally fine by the way, receive all you want anywhere.

dont stress too much about it honestly, i was the same way when i got my general. just stay away from the very bottom of your phone segment and youll be fine. i think i read somewhere that the fcc looks at the suppressed carrier frequency for ssb so thats what you want to keep inside the band, but i might be slightly off on the exact technical details there so maybe double check that part.

also just be aware that 40m at night gets really crowded with broadcast stations from overseas on certain parts of the band, which is partly why the band plan evolved the way it did in different regions. the iaru has region specific plans and north america is a bit different from europe so if you ever work dx on 40 you might notice guys operating in spots that seem weird from a us perspective