ok so i passed my general last month and im still trying to wrap my head around where i can actually operate. i know theres like segments for different license classes but honestly the band plan stuff confuses me more than the actual radio stuff did. like on 40 meters i see people talking all over the place but then i heard something about staying away from the band edges? my buddy told me to just stay above 7.200 for phone but then someone else said something about 7.125 and now im just lost. is there like a simple way to think about this or do i just need to memorize a chart

yeah the 40 meter situation trips a lot of people up honestly. so for general class phone you're looking at 7.175 to 7.300 MHz, that's your usable range for SSB voice in the US. the 7.200 thing your buddy mentioned is probably becuase a lot of folks avoid going too close to 7.300 which is the upper band edge -- on USB if you're on 7.300 your actual transmitted signal is extending above that and technically out of the amateur allocation which is a no-no. same idea applies at the bottom edge. so if you're doing USB just give yourself at least a few kHz of breathing room below 7.300. and yeah 7.125 to 7.175 is where extra class gets to play on phone, so as a general you want to stay above 7.175. the ARRL band plan is worth printing out and taping near your rig until it just becomes second nature

the band edge thing is something i didnt really get until i saw it explained with a diagram. basically when you say youre on 7.299 USB, the carrier is at 7.299 but your voice is spreading upward from there, could be 2.5 or 3 kHz wide depending on your radio's filtering. so you're actually occupying spectrum up to like 7.302 which is outside the band. the FCC cares about where your signal actually is, not just where your dial says. just stay at 7.295 or below if you want to be safe and not have to think about it too hard