so i got my general back in the spring and ive been mostly just doing casual QSOs on 40m and some digital stuff but everyone keeps telling me i need to try a contest and honestly i keep putting it off because it feels overwhelming. like i dont even know what logging software to use or how the exchange works or anything.

i was looking at the calendar and CQ WW is coming up which from what i gather is kind of a huge deal? and then theres ARRL sweepstakes not long after. i did do field day with a local club which was fun but that felt more relaxed because people were just helping me the whole time and telling me what to say.

is CQ WW too big to jump into as a first solo contest or should i start smaller? also does anyone do SOTA stuff during contests or is that a totally separate world, i see people mention SOTA activations during contest weekends and im not sure how that fits together

CQ WW is honestly fine to jump into, dont let the size of it intimidate you. the exchange is super simple — signal report and CQ zone, thats it. download N1MM+ and watch a youtube tutorial for like 20 minutes and youll have the basics down. the first few hours will feel chaotic but you get the rhythm pretty quick.

SOTA is kind of its own thing but people definitely do SOTA activations during contest weekends, especially CQ WW. some activators will chase contacts during a SOTA activation but the two scoring systems are pretty much separate. its fun if you like portable ops but id figure out one thing at a time honestly. get through your first contest first, even if you only make 50 contacts it teaches you a ton about how the bands actually behave under pile-up conditions.

field day totally counts as a contest in my book so youre not starting from zero. the main thing that helped me early on was just doing search and pounce instead of trying to run a frequency — way less pressure, you just tune around and call people instead of sitting on a freq and yelling CQ over and over hoping someone answers.

N1MM is what most people use, there's a learning curve but once you get the basic contest template loaded it kind of guides you through the exchange. my first CQ WW i only made like 80 contacts over the whole weekend but i had a blast and learned more about propagation in those two days than in months of casual operating. just go for it