ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and i passed my general last month and im still kind of confused about the whole frequency thing. like i know there are band edges and stuff but how do i know where im actually allowed to transmit vs where im just supposed to stay away from as kind of an unwritten rule thing

specifically on 40 meters, my radio shows 7.000 all the way up but i know you cant just go anywhere right? and whats the deal with the lower part of the band, someone at the club said something about RTTY and digital down there but i wasnt totally following the conversation. just trying to figure out where i can actually call CQ without stepping on someone or doing something wrong

so the short version is the FCC allocations and the band plan are two different things, which is what trips up a lot of new generals. the FCC part is the legal part — for 40m as a general you can do phone from 7.175 up to 7.300, and CW and digital from 7.025 up. that's what's actually in part 97 and what matters for your license.

the band plan is more of a gentlemens agreement thing that the ARRL puts out, so like even though you technically could call CQ SSB at 7.175, most of the phone activity is up around 7.200 and above just by convention. the digital stuff tends to cluster down around 7.040-ish and the CW guys are down at the low end. nobody's gonna report you for being at 7.176 but you might get some weird looks on the air if you know what i mean. just stay away from 7.000-7.025 as a general because thats extra class only territory, and honestly id just start somewhere around 7.200 or higher for your first phone QSOs and you'll be fine

yeah what he said, also watch out near the band edges in general. like 7.300 is the top of the US allocation and if your voice or sideband signal bleeds over that you can get in trouble even if your dial shows 7.300 because the actual signal occupies some bandwidth. most people say stay at least 3khz inside the edge to be safe so like 7.297 or lower for SSB. i learned that one the hard way when someone pointed it out to me lol