okay so ive been licensed for about three months now, got my technician and been having fun on 2m and 70cm mostly. but im starting to get confused about HF privileges. like i know techs get some HF but i cant figure out exactly what from reading part 97. the way its written is honestly kind of hard to follow for someone whos not a lawyer or whatever.

i think i can do some stuff on 10m? and maybe some CW on lower bands? but my elmer told me something about 15m too and i cant find that in the rules anywhere. also whats the deal with the power limits, is it the same 1500w limit or is there a lower limit for techs on HF. i dont want to accidentally transmit somewhere im not supposed to and get in trouble with the FCC. just want to make sure im doing this right before i start messing around down there

yeah part 97 can be a real headache to parse if youre not used to reading regulatory language. so basically as a tech you get CW privileges on 80, 40, and 15 meters, specifically the 3.525-3.600, 7.025-7.125, and 21.025-21.200 segments. then on 10m you actually get more - voice, digital, everything between 28.300-28.500 for phone and the lower part of the band for CW and data modes. power limit on HF for techs is 200 watts PEP on the phone portion of 10m i believe, not the full 1500. your elmer was right about 15m but only for CW, not phone. honestly the ARRL band plan chart makes this way easier to understand than reading the actual FCC rules directly, i keep a copy bookmarked. once you upgrade to general youll open up a ton more but the 10m phone segment is actually pretty fun when the band cooperates

i was in the same boat a few months ago honestly. what helped me was just downloading the ARRL band plan pdf instead of trying to read part 97 directly. the actual regulatory text is written for enforcement purposes not for people trying to figure out what to do lol. and yeah definitely dont stress too much about accidentally keying up somewhere wrong, just do your homework before you transmit and youll be fine. the FCC isnt sitting there waiting to catch new hams making honest mistakes, they care more about intentional interference and stuff like that. still worth knowing the rules obviously but dont let it paralyze you