ok so ive been licensed for about 8 months now, got my tech ticket last spring and im still kind of figuring out what i can and cant do. my buddy told me i could operate on some HF frequencies as a tech but i honestly dont fully understand which ones and under what conditions. like i know part 97 covers all this stuff but whenever i try to read through it my eyes kind of glaze over, its not exactly written for normal people ya know.

so my actual question is, if im a technician can i just hop on 10 meters and start talking to people or is there some kind of power limit or mode restriction i have to worry about. and also i heard something about needing to id every 10 minutes, is that still the rule or did they change it. i dont want to accidentally do something wrong and get a notice from the fcc or whatever they send you

yeah the 10 minute ID thing is still the rule, part 97.119 hasnt changed on that, you gotta give your callsign at the end of a contact and at least every 10 minutes during a long one. that parts pretty simple.

for 10 meters as a tech you do have some privileges but its limited. you can do CW across most of the band and then there's a small phone segment i think around 28.3 to 28.5 MHz where you can actually talk. power limit up there is 200 watts PEP for technicians on HF which is honestly plenty to work some DX when the band is open. just dont go transmitting outside those sub-bands or youre technically in violation of 97.301 which lays out all the frequency allocations by license class. the ARRL has a frequency chart that makes this way easier to understand than reading the actual CFR, id grab that before anything else

same boat as you not too long ago honestly. the part that got me was realizing the fcc rules are actually online and searchable at ecfr.gov but yeah reading the raw regulatory text is kind of brutal. what helped me was just downloading the ARRL band plan pdf and keeping it open on my phone when i was at the radio. once you mess up one time and someone on frequency politely tells you youre out of band you remember it pretty quick lol