ok so ive been licensed as a general for about 3 months now and i keep second guessing myself when it comes to 40 meters. like i know theres a chart somewhere that shows what frequencies generals can use vs extra class but when im actually sitting at the radio i get confused especially near the band edges. someone at my club told me to just stay away from 7.125 and below but then i see people operating down there all the time and im not sure if theyre all extras or what. also whats the deal with the band edge itself, like can i transmit right at 7.000 or is that a no go. i dont want to cause interference or worse get in trouble. i feel like ive read the rules three times and it still doesnt fully click for me

yeah this trips up a lot of new generals honestly. so the FCC allocation for general on 40m phone starts at 7.225 MHz going up to 7.300, and for CW/digital you get 7.025 to 7.125. everything below 7.025 on CW is extra class only. the thing about band edges is you really dont want your signal to actually be AT 7.000 because even a tiny bit of carrier or sideband energy can spill outside the allocation and thats a rules violation. most people leave at least a couple kHz of cushion. so like 7.003 at the absolute closest for CW if youre an extra, but realistically most operators stay well inside. on phone the upper edge 7.300 is the same deal, your whole signal needs to fit within the band so on USB your carrier would actually need to be a bit below 7.300 to keep the sidebands inside. its one of those things that makes more sense once you think about it from a signal bandwidth perspective rather than just a single frequency

the guys you're hearing below 7.125 on phone are probably just lids or maybe legitimate extras, hard to say. i'd honestly just bookmark the ARRL band plan page and tape a printed copy next to your rig, thats what i did when i upgraded. after a few weeks it just becomes muscle memory and you stop thinking about it. dont stress too much, youre clearly trying to do the right thing which puts you ahead of half the people already on the air lol