ok so i just got my technician license like two weeks ago and im still trying to figure out what i can and cant do. i was reading through part 97 the other night and honestly it kind of made my head spin. there's all these tables about frequency privileges and i'm not sure if i'm reading it right.

basically what i want to know is, i have a baofeng uv-5r and i know i can do 2m and 70cm stuff with it but someone at my local club mentioned something about how technicians can also do some HF? i looked it up and found something about 10 meters but now im seeing stuff about phone vs CW privileges and i dont fully understand the distinction. like am i allowed to just talk on 28.300 or whatever or is there more to it than that

also is there a simpler way to look this up than reading the actual FCC document because that thing is dense

yeah the privilege chart in part 97 is not exactly light reading the first time. basically as a tech you do get some HF access, specifically on 10 meters you can operate phone between 28.300 and 28.500 MHz, and you also get CW privileges across a wider chunk of the band. so 28.300 would be fine for voice as long as youre using an authorized mode and keeping your power in check.

the phone vs CW thing just means voice vs morse code essentially, though technically phone includes SSB and AM too not just FM. most HF voice on 10m is going to be upper sideband (USB) so if your radio does SSB you'd use that. the baofeng is FM only i think so you probably wouldnt be able to use it on HF anyway, youd need a different rig for that.

for a simpler reference the ARRL has a frequency/privileges chart that condenses the part 97 tables into something much more readable, worth bookmarking. also the technician question pool for your exam actually covers most of the key rules so reviewing that isnt a bad idea either even though youre already licensed.

i had the same confusion when i was studying. one thing that tripped me up is that part 97 doesn't just cover what frequencies you can use, theres also stuff in there about things like station identification every 10 minutes, not doing business communications, all that. so even when you ARE allowed on a frequency there are still operating rules to follow on top of it. just something to be aware of as you dig into it more.