okay so ive been licensed for about 3 months now, tech class, and ive been trying to figure out exactly what im allowed to do. i read through some of part 97 but honestly its kind of hard to parse if youre not used to reading legal documents or whatever they are.

my main confusion is around HF. i know techs get some HF privileges but i cant figure out exactly which bands and which modes. like can i do SSB on 10 meters or is it only CW? and then someone at my club told me something about 40 meters but i thought that was general and above only. also what about digital modes, does that count separate from phone and CW privileges?

i dont want to accidentally transmit somewhere i shouldnt be, just trying to stay legal and figure this out properly before i start experimenting more. is there like a simple breakdown somewhere that isnt just the raw FCC text

yeah part 97 is rough to read cold, dont feel bad. the short version for tech on HF is you get CW privileges on 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters, and then on 10 meters specifically you also get phone and image modes between 28.300 and 28.500 MHz. so yes you can do SSB on 10m but only in that segment. digital modes fall under different emission type designators but for practical purposes if youre running something like FT8 youre using a data mode and your privileges there depend on what the band plan allows for tech class at that frequency.

the ARRL has a frequency allocation chart thats way easier to read than the actual Part 97 text, i'd just google arrl technician privileges and you'll find a color coded chart that makes it pretty clear. that said its worth eventually actually reading 97.301 and 97.305 because those are the actual rules that matter if you ever get questioned about it

im in basically the same boat as you, got my tech license like 6 weeks ago and the band privilege stuff was really confusing to me too. what helped me was downloading the ARRL band plan PDF and just keeping it open on my phone when im at the radio. also my elmer told me when in doubt just listen first and see whats actually happening on a frequency before you transmit anywhere near it