ok so ive been licensed for about 8 months now, passed my general last spring and ive been on HF a bit but im honestly still confused about some of the Part 97 stuff. like i know there are band plans and frequency allocations but im not sure where the actual FCC rules end and where the band plans are just kind of... suggestions? my elmer told me the ARRL band plan isnt actually law but then he also said if i transmit outside of it i could still get in trouble somehow and i dont fully understand that

also i saw something online about third party traffic and i have no idea if that applies to me or if its only for certain situations. i was going to let my wife say hi to someone i was talking to in Mexico and then wasnt sure if i was allowed to do that

basically i just want to know where i can actually read the rules in plain english because part 97 itself is kind of dense and im worried im going to accidentally do something wrong

yeah this trips up a lot of newly licensed folks so dont feel bad. the short answer is the ARRL band plan is basically a gentlemens agreement, the actual legal limits are in Part 97 which defines things like which license class can use which frequencies and modes. so for example as a general you have specific sub-bands on 40m and 20m etc where you're authorized, and going outside those is an actual FCC violation, not just bad form

the third party traffic thing is relevant to you actually. Mexico does have a third party agreement with the US so your wife saying hi is fine in that case, but there are countries where that would technically be a violation because no agreement exists. the ARRL has a list of which countries have agreements and which dont, worth bookmarking

for plain english explanations i always point people to the ARRL's own regulatory info pages, and honestly Gordon West's study material still has decent summaries even after you pass the exam. Part 97 itself isnt that bad once you find the sections that apply to you, mostly 97.301 and 97.305 for frequency and mode privileges

im in basically the same boat passed general like 6 months ago and the band plan vs actual rules thing confused me forever. what helped me was just pulling up 97.301 on the ecfr website and comparing it directly to the ARRL chart side by side, after doing that once it kind of clicked for me

still not 100% sure on all the third party stuff tbh