ok so i just upgraded from tech to general last month and im still trying to figure out the whole frequency thing. like i understand there are portions of each band i can use now but 40m is confusing me. i was reading the band plan on the arrl site and then i looked at something else and the numbers were slightly different and now im not sure which one is actually the rule vs which one is just a suggestion or whatever.

also someone in my club mentioned not operating too close to the band edge and i kind of nodded like i knew what they meant but honestly i have no idea why that matters. is it a legal thing or just courtesy or what. i dont want to accidentally transmit somewhere i shouldnt be

so the short version is there's two different things people call a band plan and they're not the same thing. the FCC part 97 rules are the actual law — those define what license class can operate where and in what modes. the arrl band plan is more like a gentlemen's agreement on top of that, where the community has sort of agreed to keep ssb in certain chunks and cw in others etc. you can technically operate ssb anywhere in your general allocation even if the arrl plan suggests otherwise, you wont get fined for it, but you might annoy people.

for 40m as a general you get 7.175 to 7.300 for phone if i remember right, though double check that because i could be slightly off on the exact lower edge. the band edge thing your club guy mentioned is real though — your radio's carrier frequency needs to stay within the allocation but the sidebands of an ssb signal extend beyond that. so if you're on 7.300 usb your upper sideband is sticking out past the edge into spectrum you're not allowed in. most people suggest staying at least 3khz inside the edge to be safe, some say more.

yeah i struggled with this same thing when i upgraded. what helped me was just saving the arrl band plan image on my phone so i could look at it quick. honestly for 40 the biggest thing is just dont go below 7.175 on phone and youre fine for the legal part. the band edge thing is mostly about ssb taking up more bandwidth than you might think, like your voice is spreading out a few khz around wherever your vfo says you are so if you set it right at the edge youre already out of bounds kind of