Part of our Getting Licensed pillar
I see some version of this question in beginner forums constantly: did Technicians just get more HF privileges? The short answer, as of today, is no. What exists is a long running ARRL petition asking the FCC to expand Technician HF privileges, not an adopted rule change. I want to lay out exactly what is currently true, what is being proposed, and where things actually stand, because the confusion online is genuinely understandable.
What Technician Privileges Look Like Today
Right now, under the current FCC rules and the current question pool, Technician class phone privileges on HF are limited to the 10 meter band, specifically 28.300 to 28.500 MHz. That is it for phone. Technicians also have CW and limited data privileges on slices of 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters, but no phone access below 10 meters. This has been the rule for years, and it remains the rule today.
What ARRL Has Actually Proposed
ARRL’s Entry-Level License Committee originally put this proposal together back in 2018, and it has been revived and resubmitted to the FCC more than once since, most recently as part of a broader deregulatory docket the FCC opened in 2023. The core ask has stayed consistent: give Technicians phone privileges on small slices of 75, 40, and 15 meters, plus RTTY and digital privileges across 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters, all while keeping the existing 200 watt PEP power cap on Technician HF operation.
ARRL’s reasoning is straightforward. Technicians make up more than half of all US amateur licensees, and the League argues that giving this group a meaningful taste of HF phone operation, rather than just an inconsistent sliver of 10 meters, would improve retention and give people a real reason to eventually upgrade to General.
Where the Process Actually Stands
This is a petition, not a pending rule. The FCC has not opened this specific proposal for public comment as its own rulemaking, and it has been folded into a larger deregulatory review docket where it sits alongside a long list of other requests from ARRL and other parties. Petitions like this can sit for years, get modified, get bundled with other issues, or eventually get adopted in a different form than originally proposed. There is no reliable timeline, and anyone telling you exactly when or whether this will happen is speculating.
What I’d Tell a New Technician Today
Do not wait on a maybe. If you are a Technician and you want real, reliable HF phone access, the actual path is the same one that has always existed: study for General. It is a smaller jump than most people expect, and unlike a petition sitting in a docket, it is something you can finish this month. I will update this post if the FCC actually acts on the proposal, but until then, treat any claim that Technicians already have expanded HF phone privileges as false.