Been a Tech for two years, mostly on local repeaters and some 10m CW. Everyone keeps telling me to upgrade to General but I want to understand exactly what I'm getting. The General Class operator license authorizes privileges in all 29 amateur service bands. I know I get more HF access, but what bands specifically? And the advantage of upgrading from the Technician to General class is not only additional bands that you can operate on, but also an increase in power. While Techs are limited to 200 watts on HF, Generals can transmit with up to 1,500 watts PEP on the HF bands.

Is the upgrade really worth the effort for someone who mostly does local communications?

With a General Class license, you'll gain access to a much broader range of HF frequencies, allowing you to communicate over long distances and explore new modes of operation. The General Class license grants access to additional HF bands, including 160, 30, 17, and 12 meters. Plus SSB phone privileges on 80, 40, 20, 15m - that's where the real action is for DXing!

If you are interested in providing emergency communications, having access to most HF bands almost is a necessity so that you can pass or receive traffic depending on the propagation at various times on each band. Even for local nets, many ARES groups use HF for backup when VHF repeaters go down.

20 meters alone is worth the upgrade - The 20-meter band is arguably the best band for "working DX," that is to say making contacts with stations in foreign countries. I work Europe daily on 20m SSB around 1400Z. Also get access to FT8 and other digital modes on HF which are incredibly popular now.