ok so i passed my general exam like two months ago and ive been reading through part 97 trying to figure out what im actually allowed to do and honestly its more confusing than the exam was. like i understand the basic band privileges but some of the other stuff is really unclear to me.

specifically im trying to figure out the rules around third party traffic and also whether i can just key up and talk to someone in another country without any kind of arrangement or agreement or whatever. i heard something about third party agreements between countries but i dont fully understand when that matters and when it doesnt. also someone at my club told me i cant transmit music ever under any circumstances but then i heard somebody say you can do it under certain conditions? im just trying to get a clear picture before i start operating more and do something wrong without realizing it.

any help appreciated, sorry if this is a dumb question

not a dumb question at all, part 97 is genuinely kind of a maze when you first dig into it. the third party traffic thing trips a lot of people up. basically if youre just talking to another ham in another country, that's not third party traffic — that's just two licensed operators having a QSO, totally fine. third party traffic only comes into play when youre passing a message on behalf of someone who isnt a licensed amateur, like if your neighbor asks you to relay something to their cousin in another country through a net or whatever.

when that happens the country the other station is in has to have a third party agreement with the US, and there's a list of those countries on the ARRL website. some countries dont have an agreement so you just cant do it period, doesnt matter how simple the message is.

as for music — your club guy is mostly right. 97.113 prohibits broadcasting, which includes music intended for general audiences. the narrow exception people sometimes cite is like, music incidental to a retransmission of a space shuttle audio feed or something weird like that. for practical purposes just dont transmit music and youll be fine.

yeah what he said on the third party stuff. i'll add that when youre in a QSO and the other person hands the mic to someone at their end who isnt licensed, that person becomes a third party and the rules kick in right there. had to explain this to a guy at a field day once who wanted his kid to say hi to someone in Brazil and we had to look up real quick whether Brazil was on the list (it is, so it was fine).

the music thing is pretty cut and dry in practice even if the actual rule language feels a little vague. ive heard people get pretty bent out of shape about someone playing guitar and singing on 75 meters and whether thats a violation, and honestly i think in most cases nobody is going to come after you for one guy strumming chords but technically its in a gray area. the rule is really aimed at people rebroadcasting FM stations or running pirate music programming over ham freqs which used to be more of a thing apparently.