so i passed my technician exam like 3 weeks ago and ive been reading through Part 97 trying to figure out exactly what im allowed to do and honestly its kind of a wall of text and i keep going in circles. like i understand the basics, HF is mostly general and extra but theres some segments i can use right? and then theres the whole thing about what counts as a "emission type" and whether i can use digital modes on certain bands or if thats only for certain license classes

also i saw something about third party traffic and i dont fully get when that applies. like if im just chatting with a buddy who isnt a ham is that already a problem or does it only matter for international stuff

im not trying to do anything sketchy i just dont want to accidentally step on something and get a notice or whatever. is there like a plain english breakdown someone can point me to or should i just stick to the 2m/70cm stuff for now until i figure it out

the third party thing trips everyone up at first. basically for domestic contacts it's pretty relaxed — your non-ham friend can talk through your station as long as you're there supervising and in control of the transmission. where it gets complicated is with international contacts, because the US only has third party agreements with certain countries, so if youre working DX you gotta check the list first. the ARRL website has it.

for your tech privileges on HF yeah you do get a slice — 10 meters is the main one where you can do phone, there's a small segment around 28.3 to 28.5 i think, and you get some CW privileges on a few other bands. the band plan chart on the ARRL site is honestly the easiest way to see it visually rather than trying to parse the actual regulatory text which is written for lawyers not people lol

digital modes as a tech on HF, you do have some access, like on 10m there are segments where technicians can run digital. just download a copy of the current band plan and highlight your privileges, takes like 10 minutes and then you always have it handy

yeah i was in the same boat not that long ago tbh. i just stayed on 2m and 70cm for the first few months while i sorted it out, nothing wrong with that. the repeater scene in most areas is pretty active and you learn a lot just operating before worrying about HF access

one thing i'll say is dont stress too much about accidentally doing something wrong when you're just starting out and asking questions like this — the FCC isnt sitting there waiting to pounce on a new tech who made an honest mistake. obvious stuff like broadcasting music or encrypted transmissions or operating without ID'ing, that's where people actually get in trouble