ok so I passed my general a few weeks ago and im trying to figure out where i'm actually allowed to operate on 40 meters. I've been reading the band plan stuff on the ARRL site and also looking at the FCC part 97 rules and honestly it's a bit confusing because they dont always match up exactly? Like the FCC says one thing about the allocation and then the band plan seems to suggest different segments for different modes and I'm not totally sure which one I actually have to follow vs which one is just kind of a gentlemans agreement thing.

Also I keep hearing about staying away from band edges but nobody really explained why. Like what actually happens if you're operating right at 7.000 or whatever, is that actually illegal or just frowned upon? My elmer kind of glossed over this part. Just trying to not make any embarrassing mistakes on my first few contacts.

so the short version is the FCC allocation is the actual law, the band plan is just a voluntary gentlemens agreement that most people follow to keep things organized. you HAVE to stay within the FCC limits or you're technically in violation, but the band plan stuff within those limits is more about courtesy and avoiding interference with other modes.

the band edge thing is a real concern though and your elmer should've explained it better. the issue is your signal has sidebands and if you're running SSB and you set your dial to exactly 7.000 your actual transmitted signal is going to extend below that depending on which sideband and how wide your audio is. so you can end up with part of your transmission outside the allocation without even realizing it. most people say stay at least 3 khz inside the edge to be safe, some say more. its not always that you'll get caught but you could cause interference to other services and that's a real problem. for 40m as a general you've got phone privileges from 7.175 up to 7.300 if i remember right, double check that against part 97 though.

yeah i was confused about the same thing when i upgraded last year. the band plan thing tripped me up too. one thing that helped me was just downloading the ARRL frequency chart and keeping it next to the radio for a while, eventually it just kind of sinks in. the CW guys get pretty annoyed if you start throwing phone signals down in their end of the band so its worth paying attention to even if its not technically enforceable