so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and everyone keeps telling me to just jump in and try a contest, so i figured CQ WW phone is coming up and why not. but honestly i dont even really know what im supposed to do beyond the basics. like i know you exchange signal reports and zones but i keep reading stuff about rate and multipliers and running vs search and pounce and my head is spinning a little.

my setup is nothing special, ts-590 into a dipole up about 30 feet, so im not expecting to win anything obviously. just want to get a few contacts and not embarrass myself on the air. any tips for a first timer would be really appreciated. also is there a good way to log during the contest or do people just use paper and sort it out later

dont stress about it, CQ WW was my first contest too and honestly just jumping in is the best way to learn. search and pounce is what you want to start with — basically just tune around and when you hear someone calling CQ contest, call them, give your report and zone (zone 5 if youre in the midwest, different depending where you are obviously), and move on. dont try to run a frequency your first time out, at least not until you get a feel for the exchange rhythm.

for logging definitely use N1MM+, its free and pretty much the standard for contesting. takes maybe an hour to set up but once its going it does a lot of the heavy lifting for you, calculates multipliers automatically and everything. your dipole is totally fine for working a bunch of stations, especially if 15 or 20 meters is open. have fun with it, the bands get pretty wild during CQ WW weekend

yeah what he said about N1MM, thats what basically everyone uses. i'd also say dont worry too much about the multiplier stuff your first time, just try to make contacts and get comfortable with the fast pace of contest exchanges. some ops will be going really fast and might not even wait for you to finish before they move on, thats just how it goes during a big contest like WW. you'll get used to it. good luck this weekend