ok so I just upgraded to general last month and im still trying to figure out where I can actually transmit. I know there are band edges and stuff but honestly the ARRL band plan chart I printed out is kind of confusing to read. like on 40 meters it shows different segments for different modes but then I hear people talking in places that dont match what the chart says. also whats the deal with staying away from band edges? my elmer mentioned something about not operating right at the edge but I didnt fully understand why. do most rigs drift or something? is it a legal thing or just a courtesy thing. sorry if this is a dumb question im still figuring all this out

not a dumb question at all, this trips up a lot of new generals. so the short version is the FCC allocations are the legal limits and the band plan is more of a gentlemans agreement on top of that. for 40m as a general you can do phone from 7.175 up to 7.300, and CW/data down below that. the band edge thing your elmer mentioned is a real concern though — the issue is that your transmitted signal has sidebands and if you tune right to 7.300 your upper sideband is actually going out above the edge which puts you outside your allocation. most people say stay at least 3 khz inside the edge to be safe, some say more depending on how clean your rig is. the voices you hear that seem to be in the wrong place might be extra or amateur extra class ops who have a wider chunk of the band than generals do, they can go lower on phone for example.

yeah what he said. also worth knowing that 40m gets pretty chaotic especially in the evenings when the dx stations start rolling in from europe and south america. theyve got different band allocations over there so you'll sometimes hear broadcast interference or foreign stations operating in what we consider our phone portion. doesnt mean you're doing anything wrong, just the nature of that band. i'd say just load up the ARRL band plan on your phone while you're operating for a while until it becomes second nature, eventually you just know where to hang out without thinking about it