ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and i mostly just do 2m/70cm stuff on my local repeaters which is fine but i started looking into HF a little and now im completely lost on what part 97 actually allows me to do as a tech. like i know i have some HF privileges but i cant figure out exactly where they are or what modes i can use. i tried reading the actual FCC rules document and honestly it reads like a legal contract, i dont understand half of it.

also someone at my club mentioned something about third party traffic and international communications having extra rules? i wasnt even sure what that meant. does that apply to like... all contacts or just certain ones. sorry if this is a dumb question im still figuring all this out

not a dumb question at all, part 97 is genuinely dense and the FCC doesnt exactly make it easy to read. for your tech HF privileges the main one people care about is 10 meters - you get phone on 28.300 to 28.500 MHz and some CW/data privileges lower in the band. theres also a small sliver on 15m and 40m for CW only if i remember right. the ARRL has a band plan chart thats way easier to read than the actual rule text, i'd just grab that.

the third party traffic thing is separate and honestly most casual contacts you'll never deal with it. it basically means if you're passing a message on behalf of someone who isnt a ham (like relaying a personal message for a friend to someone in another country) there are rules about which countries allow that. some countries have agreements with the US for it, some dont. for normal ragchews it doesnt really come up.

yeah the band privileges for tech on HF are pretty limited honestly, most people just upgrade to general when they want to really get into HF. the general exam isnt that bad and opens up way more of the spectrum. worth thinking about if you're getting curious about HF anyway