ok so i just upgraded to general last month and im still trying to figure out the actual frequency allocations. i know generals get more of 40m than technicians but every time i look it up i get slightly different answers depending on the website. like some say i can go down to 7.175 for phone and others say something different. and then theres the band plan thing which is separate from whats actually legal right? so if i tune down near 7.125 or whatever am i going to step on a cw segment or is that ok for SSB? i dont want to be that guy who transmits somewhere dumb and gets yelled at on the air

also whats the deal with band edges, someone at my club meeting said to stay away from them but didnt really explain why. is it just a gentlemans agreement or is there actually a rule about it

so the actual FCC part 97 allocation for general on 40m phone is 7.175 to 7.300 MHz, thats the legal limit, anything below 7.175 on SSB and youre in territory you shouldnt be in as a general. the band plan stuff like where CW hangs out vs digital vs SSB is separate and more of a gentlemens agreement enforced by social pressure and sometimes pretty grumpy ops on the air lol

the band edge thing is a real practical concern though not a rule exactly. basically your transmitted signal isnt a perfect little spike at one frequency, it has sidebands and if youre right at the edge of your allocation those sidebands can spill outside your privleges which would be a violation. so if youre allowed down to 7.175 you probably dont want to be calling CQ at exactly 7.175 USB because your lower sideband is going to be below that. most people say give yourself a few kHz of margin. on USB the carrier frequency is below the audio so its a bit counterintuitive but just stay a bit inside the edges and youre fine

yeah what he said about the edges, i learned that the hard way when someone pointed out i was probably splattering outside the band. embarassing. anyway just download the ARRL band plan as a pdf and keep it handy, it has both the legal stuff and the gentlemens agreement frequencies laid out pretty clearly. took me a while to really get it internalized but after a few months of just listening around youll get a feel for where everything actually happens vs where its technically allowed