so ive been licensed about 8 months now, got my general back in March and have mostly been doing casual ragchews on 40m and some local repeater stuff. a buddy at my club keeps telling me i need to try a contest and honestly i keep putting it off because it sounds kind of overwhelming.

he mentioned CQ WW is coming up and apparently its one of the big ones? like international contacts and multipliers and zones and stuff. i looked it up and my head kind of spun a little. theres also Field Day which i did with the club earlier this year but that felt more relaxed and social, not sure if that counts as a real contest or more of an event. either way i enjoyed it.

i run a Yaesu FT-891 into a wire antenna in my attic which i know isnt ideal but its what i have. is that going to be completely hopeless for something like CQ WW or should i just go for it anyway and see what happens. also someone mentioned SOTA activations are a good way to get contest-like experience without the pressure, is that true? ive been curious about SOTA for a while but never tried it.

anyway just looking for any advice from people whove done this stuff before. dont want to make a fool of myself on the air

Field Day absolutely counts and honestly its probably the best intro to contest operating there is. the fact that you already did it means you're more ready than you think. CQ WW is a different beast though, especially phone — the pileups can be intense and the rate when the band is hopping is just something else. SSB weekend is usually late October and CW is in November if that matters to you.

with an attic wire you'll work stuff, just maybe not the multipliers that a beam on a tower would get. but thats fine, seriously nobody cares what your score is except you. i ran my first CQ WW with a dipole in a tree and worked like 40 countries, felt amazing at the time. now i have a little more antenna and my expectations are different but that first contest buzz is hard to beat.

SOTA is kind of its own world and i wouldnt exactly call it contest-like, its more of an activation/chase thing with points. fun though, very different vibe. if you want actual contest practice before CQ WW try one of the state QSO parties, theyre lower key and you can actually get a feel for exchange formats without the chaos of a major.

dont stress about the attic antenna, just get on and make some noise. the worst that happens is you dont get a lot of contacts and you learn something. i did my first cq ww from a hotel room with a magloop once and still had a blast lol

one thing id say is download N1MM+ before the contest and just poke around in it, logging during a contest by hand is technically possible but having the software handle your dupe checking and multiplier tracking makes such a huge difference especially when things get busy. theres a learning curve but theres good youtube videos for it