okay so i passed my general exam like three weeks ago and im still trying to figure out exactly what frequencies im allowed to use. i know theres a chart somewhere but every time i look it up i get confused because some sources say different things or the chart looks different depending on where i find it. like i understand technician gets basically nothing on HF except a little bit on 10m but general opens up a lot more right? but then there are these areas that say "general" and areas that say "amateur extra only" and i cant always tell if the frequency im on is okay or not. also someone at my club mentioned something about phone vs cw privileges being different segments and that made it even more confusing. is there like a simple way to understand this or do i just need to memorize the whole chart

yeah the band plan stuff trips up a lot of new generals, dont feel bad. the short version is that on most HF bands the lower portion is reserved for extra class and general gets everything above that. so on 40m for example the bottom chunk of the phone segment is extra only and you have to stay above a certain frequency for phone. CW is a bit different because the whole CW portion is usually open to all license classes but there are still sub-band edges you need to know. best thing i can tell you is go straight to Part 97 on the FCC website and look at section 97.301 and 97.305 — those two together lay out exactly who can operate where and what modes. the ARRL also has a printable band plan card that color codes it pretty well, way better than random websites. honestly once you stare at it for a while it clicks, its not as bad as it seems at first

i had the exact same problem when i upgraded lol. what finally made it stick for me was just going on 40m and watching where the activity actually was and cross checking with the chart. after a few times it became second nature. one thing that tripped me up was thinking the band edges on the chart were hard stops in terms of interference but they're actually license class boundaries which is a different thing. dont transmit outside your priveleges obv but also remember the mode-specific segments like you dont want to be doing phone down in the cw/digital portion regardless of license class