so i just got my general last spring and ive been on HF for maybe 6 months now mostly just ragchewing on 40m and doing some SOTA stuff on my hikes. a buddy at my club keeps telling me i need to try CQ WW this october and i honestly dont really know what to expect. like i understand the basic idea, contacts and zones and multipliers, but ive never actually sat down for a full contest before. is it completely overwhelming for a first timer or is it kind of fun even if you're not super competitive about it? i dont have a great station, just a modest dipole and a 100w rig, wondering if its even worth trying or if ill just be calling into the void all weekend

also is there much difference between doing CQ WW SSB vs the CW one in terms of difficulty for someone who's still pretty slow on code

oh man just do it, seriously. your first CQ WW is going to be a blast even if you only make 50 contacts the whole weekend. the thing people dont tell you is that you dont have to operate the whole 48 hours, just jump in for a few hours when the bands sound good and see what happens. with 100w and a dipole youre gonna work more than you think, especially if 15m opens up nicely which it has been doing a lot lately with the solar cycle where it is.

for SSB vs CW - if youre slow on code id definitely start with SSB, the CW weekend is great but yeah it can be rough if you're still building speed. the SSB one is usually last weekend of october. you'll hear stations from all over the world just pounding away calling CQ CONTEST and you just jump in and give your callsign and exchange. takes maybe 3 or 4 contacts to get the rhythm and then it kind of clicks. dont stress about your score, nobody cares about first timers score except maybe yourself haha

I did my first CQ WW a couple years back in a pretty similar situation to you actually. Was nervous about it but ended up having a really good time. One thing I'd say is spend like 20 minutes before the contest starts just reading the rules on the CQ magazine website, specifically the exchange and the zone numbering, because if you dont know your CQ zone ahead of time youll be fumbling around looking it up mid-pileup which is embarrassing lol. You're zone 3, 4, or 5 depending on where in the US you are, worth just knowing it cold.

Also the SOTA experience is going to help you more than you think - you've already learned to work with modest setups and pull out weak signals, that translates pretty directly. Enjoy it, its one of those things where even a "bad" score still means you talked to Japan or South Africa or wherever and thats just cool