so i finally worked up the nerve to actually participate in CQ WW SSB last weekend instead of just listening to it like i've done the past two years. been licensed about 18 months, have a modest setup, IC-7300 into a dipole in the attic (yeah i know, i know) and i figured how bad could it be right

well. pretty bad but also kind of amazing? like i knew the big guns would be running hundreds of contacts an hour but i wasn't really prepared for how fast everything moves. i'd tune to a frequency and before i could even get my call sign out someone else would answer the DX station and they'd already be in QSO. my timing was just completely off for the first few hours.

ended up with 47 contacts over the whole weekend which i know is nothing but i worked Japan, Brazil, and a couple European stations which felt incredible given im running like 100 watts into an attic dipole. logged it all in N1MM which i'd never used before and that was its own adventure trying to figure out the exchange format on the fly.

anyway just wanted to share because i keep seeing people say contests are intimidating and yeah they are but also just do it. already looking at ARRL November Sweepstakes as my next one since the exchange seems a bit more manageable than CQ WW.

47 contacts with an attic dipole during CQ WW is honestly not bad at all, don't undersell that. the conditions were pretty rough on 40 especially saturday night so you probably picked a tough year to start but that's kind of fine because it only gets easier from here.

Sweepstakes is a great choice for next. the exchange is longer but once you get the hang of it the pace is a little more forgiving and everyone on the band is a domestic station so you don't have the massive pileup problem nearly as much. one thing that helped me early on was just doing search and pounce for the whole contest rather than trying to run a frequency, way less stressful when you're learning.

N1MM is the right tool, stick with it. takes a few contests before it becomes second nature but after that you won't want to use anything else.

dude Japan on 100w through an attic antenna is legit, dont let anyone tell you otherwise. i had a tribander at 40 feet for my first CQ WW and barely pulled more than that first time out

one thing i'll mention since you're looking at upcoming stuff - if you haven't tried SOTA activations in between the big contests it's kind of a good way to keep your operating sharp without the pressure. totally different vibe but you're still making contacts under weird conditions and figuring out your radio. some of the best CW practice i got was calling CQ from a summit with a compromised antenna