so i finally got my general last spring and ive been listening to a lot of contests but never really jumped in with both feet. Field Day i did with my club which was great but that felt more relaxed, people were helping me log and stuff. CQ WW feels way more serious and i honestly dont know where to start.

like do i just pick a band and start calling CQ or should i be search and pouncing the whole time? ive got a pretty modest setup, ts-590 and a dipole up about 30 feet so im not gonna be running a kilowatt pile-up or anything. also is 15m even going to be open this late in the season or should i just camp on 40m the whole weekend. and the exchange, im still a little fuzzy on the zone thing, i know im in zone 5 but do i send that every time or just when they ask.

any advice welcome, even if its just like go slow and dont panic lol

Welcome to the addiction, haha. Seriously though CQ WW is one of those contests where you can go as hard or as easy as you want. With your setup id honestly recommend starting with search and pounce, just tune around and work whoever you can hear, get comfortable with the exchange before you try running. The exchange is simple -- you send your call, they send theirs plus their zone, you come back with 59 and your zone, done. Yes you send zone 5 every single time, its part of the exchange no matter what.

15m has actually been really good this cycle, we're coming up on solar max territory so dont write it off at all. Saturday afternoon 15m to Europe can be wild. 40m gets crowded and noisy but its solid for closer stuff especially at night. Honestly just get on, make some contacts, and dont stress about rate. Your first CQ WW is just about learning the flow.

yeah what he said about S&P is good advice. i did my first one two years ago and tried running way too early and just got frustrated sitting there calling CQ into the void. also get N1MM set up beforehand if you havent already, dont try to paper log it trust me. the zone map thing tripped me up too at first, just google CQ zones map and bookmark it, youll refer to it like 50 times the first contest

oh also unrelated but if you ever get a chance to do a SOTA activation before or after the contest season its a completely different vibe but i think it actually made me better at quick exchanges because you kinda have to be efficient when guys are waiting in a pileup on a summit. anyway good luck this weekend