ok so i passed my technician exam like two months ago and ive been mostly just listening so far but i want to start actually transmitting. my question is kind of all over the place so bear with me.

i know techs have limited HF privileges but i keep reading different things on different websites about what exactly is allowed. like someone in my local club said i can do CW on 40m but then someone else said thats wrong or only certain segments or something. and then theres the whole thing about phone on 10m which i thought i was allowed to do but now im second guessing everything.

is there like a simple breakdown somewhere in part 97 itself or do i have to just memorize the band plan? also does the band plan have any legal weight or is it just a gentlemens agreement type thing. i honestly didnt realize how confusing this would be after passing the test.

yeah the band plan vs actual FCC rules thing trips up a lot of new folks. the short version is that Part 97 is the actual law - that's 47 CFR Part 97 if you want to look it up directly on the FCC website - and the band plan is more like a community agreement that doesn't have legal enforcement behind it but you'll definitely hear about it from other hams if you go where you're not supposed to be.

for techs on HF, you do get CW privileges on parts of 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters. 10m is where you get a bit more room - you can do phone in the 28.300 to 28.500 segment. the exact allocations are in 97.301 and the associated tables. honestly your best bet is to just pull up the actual part 97 document and look at the frequency tables, theyre not as scary as they sound once you're looking at the right section. the ARRL also has a tech privileges chart that mirrors the actual rules pretty closely if you want something easier to read while you're getting started.

same situation here not too long ago lol. what helped me was just downloading the arrl band plan pdf and then cross referencing with the actual part 97 tables. takes like an hour but after that it kinda clicks. the thing that confused me for a while was thinking the band plan WAS the rule, like you said. its not, but also dont just ignore it or youll annoy everyone on the air which is its own problem honestly.