ok so I finally upgraded to general a few weeks ago and I've been trying to figure out where I'm actually allowed to operate on 40 meters. I know there's the phone portion and the cw portion but every chart I look at online seems slightly different and I'm not sure which one is the actual legal limit vs the suggested one. like is there a difference between the band plan and the actual FCC allocation? someone at my club mentioned something about the ARRL band plan not being law and now I'm second guessing everything I thought I knew. also heard something about staying away from band edges but nobody really explained why, something about your signal being wider than you think? just trying not to accidentally transmit somewhere I shouldnt be

yeah this trips up a lot of new generals, dont feel bad. so the short version is: the FCC Part 97 allocations are the actual legal limits, the ARRL band plan is just a gentlemens agreement basically on how to divvy up the space within those limits. you have to follow the FCC rules, the band plan is more like etiquette.

for 40m as a general you can do phone from 7.175 up to 7.300, cw and digital down from 7.025 to 7.125. thats the legal part. now the band edge thing - your radio isnt a perfect box. if youre on 7.300 doing USB your signal can easily splash up above that and thats where you get in trouble. most people say stay at least a few khz inside the edge just to be safe, especially if you dont have a good idea of your rigs spectral cleanliness. newer rigs are usually fine but still, no reason to push it.

the band edge thing got me once, well sort of. i was running 7.298 on a slightly older radio and someone came back to me saying i was splashing above 7.3. turned out the mic gain was cranked way too high and it was just making a mess of everything above the carrier. so its not always just about where your dial says you are, the audio processing can widen things out too if its set wrong. anyway just something to keep in mind when youre getting started, run the mic gain conservatively until you know what your rig does