So i've been licensed for about 14 months now and mostly just do casual rag chewing on 40m and some local nets. A friend from my club keeps telling me i should try CQ WW this October and honestly im kind of tempted but also a little intimidated by the whole thing. Like i dont even really understand the exchange fully — you send your signal report and your zone right? Is it the CQ zone or ITU zone because ive seen both mentioned and i keep confusing myself.

Also my setup is pretty modest, just a Yaesu FT-891 and a wire dipole up about 30 feet. Is that even worth bothering with or am i gonna just get frustrated calling CQ into the void all weekend. I did try to tail-end a few QSOs during Field Day this summer and that was actually kind of fun so maybe i have some taste for it. Anyway just wondering if anyone has advice for a first timer who doesnt want to totally embarrass themselves lol

CQ zones, not ITU — you'll want to look up your zone before the contest starts, most of North America is zone 3, 4, or 5 depending where you are. The exchange is just 59 and your zone number, so like 59 05 if you're in zone 5. Pretty simple once you do it a few times.

And honestly dont let the modest station thing stop you. I ran my first CQ WW with a G5RV and a 100 watt radio and still worked like 40 countries over the weekend. The thing is conditions on 15m and 10m can be really wild during the contest since so many stations are active, so even a simple antenna picks up stuff you'd never hear on a random Tuesday. Just search and pounce for your first one — dont try to run a frequency, just scroll around and answer people. Way less stressful and you still get a decent score.

Field Day is a good sign that you enjoy the pace of it. CQ WW is more intense but same basic idea. Go for it.

yeah just do it, worst case you work 20 contacts and call it a night. nobody is judging your score except you. i remember being nervous about my first contest too and then realized everyone on the air is just happy to get another contact in the log, they dont care if youre running a barefoot 100 watts from an apartment.

one thing i'd say is get N1MM+ set up beforehand if you havent already, logging by hand during a contest is kind of a pain and the software does the dupe checking automatically which is super helpful when you cant remember if you already worked that station. there's a bit of a learning curve with N1MM but plenty of YouTube walkthroughs out there. also SOTA is kind of a different animal entirely if your friend mentioned that too — thats more portable activations and summits than contest operating, though some people do SOTA during contest weekends which is a whole thing