ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and i finally got my general last week which im pretty excited about but now im confused about where i can actually operate. like i understand the tech portion was limited but now theres all these new segments and i keep reading different things online about band edges and stuff.

specifically on 40 meters, i see people say dont operate right at the band edge because of frequency drift or something but my radio has a pretty stable vfo so does that still apply? and also whats the deal with LSB vs the digital portions, is there like a hard line or is it more of a gentlemens agreement type thing. i looked up the arrl band plan but it shows different things than what the fcc actually allocates and i cant tell which one i actually have to follow legally

sorry if this is a dumb question im just trying to not accidentally transmit somewhere i shouldnt

not a dumb question at all, this trips up a lot of new generals. so the short version is the FCC allocation is the law, the ARRL band plan is more like a suggestion that most people follow to avoid chaos. on 40m as a general you get 7.175 to 7.300 MHz for phone, so technically you could operate right at 7.175 but here's the thing - your signal has bandwidth. if you're on LSB and you say your dial reads 7.175, your actual signal is going several kHz lower than that. so you'd be transmitting partially in the extra/advanced portion or even outside the allocation. thats why people say stay away from band edges, its not about the radio drifting its about where your actual RF is going.

the digital stuff like FT8 on 7.074 is kind of self organized, nobody is legally forced to use those spots but everyone does because it works and if you park an SSB signal there people will not be happy with you. just use pskreporter or look at a waterfall before you transmit anywhere new and youll get a feel for where things actually happen.

yeah what he said about the bandwidth thing is the key part that i wish someone had explained to me earlier. i was in the same boat when i upgraded and i just kind of avoided anything below 7.200 for a while because i wasnt sure lol. took me a few months of just listening before it clicked where everything actually lives.

one thing i'd add is that 40m gets pretty crowded especially in the evenings and the phone portion for generals is already kind of squeezed so you'll figure out the unwritten rules fast just by hanging around. also worth knowing that 40m at night opens up to a lot of dx from europe and south america so the band plan stuff gets interesting when you have stations from regions with different allocations showing up in spots that would be outside band for them at home