so i passed my general about 3 months ago and ive been mostly sticking to 40m and 20m but im honestly still pretty fuzzy on what the actual rules are. like i know part 97 is the thing but every time i try to read through it i get lost in the language. my main question i guess is about power limits — someone at my club told me i can run 1500 watts but then someone else said thats only on certain bands or certain modes? and also i wasnt sure if theres like a difference between what a general can do vs extra on HF specifically in terms of where you can operate. i looked it up but the FCC website is not exactly easy to navigate if youre new to this. i dont want to accidentally do something wrong and get a notice of apparent liability or whatever its called

okay so the power thing is pretty straightforward once you see it laid out. 1500 watts PEP output is the max for most HF bands yeah, but there are exceptions — 30 meters is limited to 200 watts PEP and you have to be secondary to government users up there so you also have to yield if there's any interference. and then some of the weak signal stuff like near the beacons has lower limits too. the general vs extra distinction is really about frequency privileges not power, so as a general you're just excluded from certain sub-bands that are extra only. like on 20m you cant operate phone below 14.225, that chunk from 14.150 to 14.225 is extra only. the ARRL band plan chart is honestly the fastest way to get a handle on it, way easier than trying to parse the actual CFR text. part 97.313 is the specific section for power if you want to look it up but the band plan chart just shows you where you can and cant go at a glance

dont stress too much about getting a notice from the FCC, they're not exactly out there monitoring every qso waiting to nail new generals lol. the more practical thing to worry about is just knowing your band edges and not wandering into extra-only territory by accident. i did that once when i was new, was tuning around and called CQ about 3 khz below where i should have been on 75m. nobody said anything to me on air but i felt bad when i realized it later. just keep the band plan somewhere near your rig for a while til it becomes second nature