okay so ive been a tech for about 6 months now and i thought i had a decent handle on what frequencies i was allowed to use but then someone at my local club meeting mentioned something about phone privileges on HF and now im totally turned around. i was under the impression that as a tech i basically only had VHF/UHF plus like some very limited HF stuff but i cant find a straight answer anywhere. the part 97 document online is honestly kind of hard to read if youre not used to legal language

specifically im wondering about the 10 meter band and whether i can do voice there or just CW. also does any of this change if im operating from someone elses station who has a higher license class or does my license still limit what modes i can use. sorry if this is a really basic question i just dont want to accidentally do something wrong

so the short version is as a tech you get CW privileges on a few HF bands - 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters in small segments - but for phone (voice) on HF you only get a slice of 10 meters, specifically 28.300 to 28.500 MHz. thats it for voice on HF as a tech. everything else is VHF and up like you thought.

as for operating from someone elses station, your own license class is what limits you regardless of whose radio youre sitting at. so if your buddy is an extra and he lets you use his rig, you still can only operate within tech privileges. the only exception is if he's physically present and acting as control operator - then HIS license class applies, but thats a whole other thing and honestly most people dont really use it that way in practice. look up the ARRL band plan, its way easier to read than part 97 directly for figuring out where you can operate.

yeah i was confused by the same thing when i first got my ticket. the 10m phone thing tripped me up too. i actually called the ARRL tech support line once just to make sure i wasnt reading it wrong lol. they were pretty helpful if youre still unsure after reading through it