ok so ive been licensed as a general for about 3 months now and i keep second guessing myself every time i want to get on 40 meters. like i know theres the actual FCC allocation and then theres the band plan which is kind of a gentlemans agreement thing? but im not sure which one i legally have to follow vs which one is just like... suggested.

specifically i wanted to call CQ around 7.250 and someone in my club told me to be careful near the band edges but didnt really explain why. also is 7.125 to 7.175 really just for phone or can i go lower than that if im doing SSB. i feel like every time i look this up i get a slightly different answer depending on the website

so the short version is the FCC part 97 stuff is what you legally have to stay within, and for general on 40m phone that means 7.175 to 7.300 MHz. the band plan stuff from ARRL is just a coordination thing, nobody is going to come after you legally for ignoring it but you might annoy people if you park on a frequency that everyone kind of expects to be used for something else.

the band edge thing your club guy mentioned is real though. your radio's displayed frequency is usually the suppressed carrier, and with SSB the actual signal extends a few kHz above that (for USB) or below (for LSB). so if you tune to exactly 7.300 and transmit USB, part of your signal is technically outside the allocation. most people leave at least 3kHz of margin from the edge just to be safe. some guys are more careful than others about it but its good practice especially when you're newer and still learning how your rig behaves.

7.125 to 7.175 is technically within your privileges as a general for phone but by convention that chunk tends to get used a lot for digital and some CW activity depending on what part of the day it is. you can technically operate there but expect it to be busy and occasionally someone will tell you youre in the wrong spot even if youre not legally out of bounds.

yeah i was confused about the same thing when i upgraded. the band edge thing bit me once, i was running 7.298 USB and got a note from someone saying my signal was splashing above 7.300. wasnt intentional at all, just didnt think about the sideband extending past where the dial says. lesson learned i guess